(5 hours ago)Storx wrote Yeah can't disagree to be honest, keep forgetting about the number of singles around.
I'm surprised they don't do a swap with Darlington for 1602-7 for the 57/57A. I know Streetlite's etc are crap, but the short length buses which are a complete headache for Darlington would be ideal for it. Could probably throw them on the 415/434 aswell really and I'm sure Durham could give up 1579/80 aswell to tidy the batch up (displaced by electrics?). Let's be honest the 1/2/57/57A/434 aren't getting new buses anytime soon and it sorts out the singles for awhile and get rid of the short Solo's which are also completely inappropiate on the 57/57A.
Ignoring the 553 headache, it means they can start working on making Northumbria Pulsar free as they're the more unreliable vehicles lately over the deckers, even at Ashington.
The Streetlites are far, far, worse than the Pulsars. Of the 8 at Ashington, it isn't unusual for 3-4 of them to be off the road at once. Last week, for example, 1574 and 1575 were both VOR for most of it and both 1576 and 1582 had issues on Friday. 1577 was also off but checking the MOT history this looks to have been tested on Friday, so that explains that absence.
Pulsar wise there have been some repeated failures recently, but overall they're still pretty reliable - I'd certainly be more confident in a Pulsar getting me somewhere than a Streetlite or E400 at present.
The 415/460 cannot be ran by anything larger than a Solo as an FYI, so that plan wouldn't work. I assume they have a plan for when 2601-3 eventually go, but unless it is risk assessed again or has a route change then I believe it was deemed too risky to send anything larger.