(20 Feb 2025, 11:05 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote What StreetDecks?  I know there was the two oddball B5 X-lines but we are talking handful of buses here none of which are exactly new themselves.  If we'd seen a mass exodus of MMCs or whatever then maybe, but the idea any of this is due to sending a handful of odd midlife vehicles to Manchester is nonsense.  The only ones there's really any case around imo are the few solos though I think 709 was supposed to be withdrawn as well around that time but not sure it ever was in reality.

The media and politicians would be better off focusing on the actual reasons - lack of investment in engineering and new vehicles, rather than talking up the impact of transfers of single figure numbers of vehicles between opcos.  It's just a distraction from the real issue.

I think it's a misconception formed on the basis of us getting ex-Manchester and ex-London buses to replace some ageing vehicles in the North East fleet. 

Aside from the 13+ year old Citaros, I think the only other significant exit is the B5LHs to East Yorkshire. The ex-Manchester and ex-London stuff appears to have replaced a mixture of Omnicity, Omnidekka and Versas, with slightly newer buses. You could argue that the 3x Solos shouldn't have gone, but they're 14 year old at this point. I don't think it's had a material impact on fleet availability, and I think they'd very much be in the same position.

It'd be a better argument to argue the lack of fleet investment. We've not had any new buses ordered on a commercial basis for coming up to 5 years in September; the last being the Streetdecks and E400MMCs for the Xlines services. There's of course been the handful of Yutongs with significant Government funding, but this is a mere drop in the ocean. The longer you go on not investing, the worse the problem becomes at the point you need to invest.