(9 hours ago)col87 wrote Want to tell that to the passengers in Hartlepool then, we have a bad service as it is half the time without losing more buses and decreasing the frequency further. The double deckers might be nice though and they is always a way around the pit issue, don’t forget it wasnt so long ago that one of the Man 18.220 was going to be a permanent bus in the Hartlepool fleet and Stagecoach manage told the Transport users group just last year that some of Stocktons fleet would transfer to Hartlepool once Stockton went electric, so clearly they was plans either to sort the pit out or ways round it.
Depends what buses they are though, there's loads of E200's around which could be displaced aswell. The Stockton plans seem to be changing every other week lately though mind.
Personally though if I was allowed some investment I'd look at upgrading the 62/63 in Newcastle and displace some of the 16 Plate E400MMC's down to Hartlepool for the 1/6/7 with the 6/7 on a reduced frequency to combat the extra costs of running the deckers.
I know it's not direct investment for Hartlepool but the 62/63 would be much easier to convince spreadsheet lovers in an office somewhere over some town routes and would be a decent upgrade as they're a different level of quality over imo pretty awful E200's. It would massively help Slatyford out aswell who's fleet isn't particularly great either who've had barely any investment either.