(23 Feb 2026, 9:42 pm)Busesinnewcastle wrote 10642 back at Slatyford and 10639 not out from walkergate. Supprised Slatyford have not had to borrow a walkergate bus considering all there’s off the road. 26072 was pulled from the 685 and replaced with 10643 that’s 5 days in a row a bus have broke down on that route
Re 685. Are the buses breaking down out on the route thus requiring recovery or send a fitter and inconveniencing passengers, or is it the need to swap buses on return to Newcastle.
A radical suggestion - if Slatyford and Stagecoach NE do not have suitable vehicles for the 685 why not run the route as an outstation of Carlisle? Carlisle provide the buses which get swapped over in Carlisle as and when for maintenance, Slatford provides the drivers?
Whatever goes on the 685 has to be reliable which is why when Carlisle needed to allocate doucble deckers, they quickly redirected 2 new E400MMCs fthe back of an order or 20 for Morecambe as the 55 reg ALX400s (the newest double deckers Carlisle had at the time) used to breakdown too much somewhere enroute. The ALX400s only lasted one school term (Autumn).