(13 Apr 2014, 8:55 pm)NEBCD Malarkey wrote Here is what Services I think will get New Buses in 2014, Remember there is 80 New Buses due This Year, and This Totals 80.
(Crusader/Fab 57/Lime/Red Arrows/Red Kite/Toon Link/M2/M3)
You appear to have missed off order which has been established on this forum for the longest period of time: service X66.
As we've already discussed, the operating costs of the articulated Citaros is massive - they have poor fuel efficiency compared to a light-weight single decker, increased driver costs compared to a standard single decker vehicle, and maintenance costs are high. This is the reasoning for investing in service X66; although the service was recently re-branded, the articulated Citaros were appalling previously. They needed the deep clean which they received, and it was a good opportunity to re-brand the service too - there were many vinyl marks (including some from London) left behind off previous liveries and the former livery had lost its touch.
This is common with all articulated vehicles. Although seemingly missed by most, Rob said in this post that 'the same could be said about the Solar Fusion on the X40 too'. Was this a hint? Maybe... You could argue that Go North East won the X40 contract on the basis that it was going to be allocated articulated vehicles - but most days we see that they aren't allocated, and when they are, vehicle breakdowns occur... Would Great Park really complain if they were receiving brand new vehicles for service X40 as Rob seemingly alludes to in his post?
In addition to the aforementioned post, this post by Rob also suggests that Go North East have something up their sleeve for service X21. We've not yet established whether this will be through direct investment or by cascades, but replacing the "Red Arrows" stock so soon does seem a little irrational to me - especially when the replacement stock perhaps won't manage the job quite as well.
Let's just remove services M2/M3 from your list too. Go North East typically invest in their most profitable services, unless there is a reason behind investing in a less profitable service...
I've previously said that they're the likely candidate for the "QuayLink" Versa cascades in 2015 - that is of course assuming Go North East don't retain the contract, and Nexus do not specify that new vehicles have to be purchased..!