(2 hours ago)Storx wrote tbf, the DB300's are still a rock up here aswell if you ask me, absolute workhorses considering they're all out 7 days a week from 5am - 12am which ironically can't be said about the new electrics which are in bed by 7pm every night - does anyone actually know the reason for this?
It's wild speculation this, but I have a feeling you's might benefit from some of the Merseyside cascades. Unless something changes and Merseytravel start buying the old fleets then everything is leaving.
There's 50x E200MMC's and 24x Evora's to go somewhere (plus 19 DF Streetlite's, including the ex X4 ones, but you probably don't want them). Obviously there's all the other divisions fighting for stuff aswell as there's a lot of ancient single deckers around.
I mean, if Stockton would allocate them correctly, The Lites are perfect for the Town services but looking at Arriva's operations down south, it looks so bad. Hearts & Essex are still operating a Nimbus. Kent & Surrey still have old Solos and a old E200. Also they got some Gemini 1's. Beds & Bucks still have a fair few Olympus's. Unsure what Arriva's plans are down there for the future but yeh. There are more depots with a tonne of older vehicles which need replacing then Stockton. They should just cash in on the Streetlites as soon as they can possibly do so for them as I can't really see in the future any smaller company wanting to buy a battered up Arriva Streetlite compared to a Pulsar.
Wouldn't mind the E200MMC's coming to Stockton though as they would be useful for ALL of the services. Evoras would be alright too. Unsure how the allocating procedure actually works but I would have Streetlites on the services:
X2
7
8
9
15
16
17A
17B
28
29
29A
62
If it were necessary, I would have them on the X66/X67/63/64/65. Maybe also on Short X12's. I'm not familiar on the X12 or the X22 services on how hilly they are.