(27 Apr 2014, 9:27 am)Robert wrote [quote'nk55' pid='40603' dateline='1398589318']
Going back a few months, gne had a red versa on the diamond network before it went onto the 58. Thinking back i'm of the opinion that the vehicle was "liked" by drivers & passengers alike. I think part of the 80 bus order will go to optare for diamond upgrade if not for the lime & toon link aswell.
There really isn't any need for a Diamond upgrade just yet as the Citaros cope very well on the Diamond services. Its just the maintenance side of things that isn't as suggested before by Dan. The Lime and Toon Link however, because of the buses they currently use (or most of them in the Toon Link case) are very unreliable and its the buses that are the problem and not the Maintenance.
With the lime I have to say that 4850-4855 are the worst. I don't know whether to include 4896 in that as I don't know which Lime a Chester-le-Street spare is replacing so I just assume its the older 6 buses on the route.
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4850 is terrible. 4852 is my favourite, 4855 is alright, 4853 seems to be a bit dodgy like 4851. 4854 seems to have recovered well after it's accident a few years back. 4896 is one of the better ones. All 7 are used on the route, so 13 buses altogether PVR. It's hard to explain the timings without cocking it up, but here it sort of goes;
Consett & Back - 2 hours 9 minutes
Stanley & Back - 57 minutes
(78) Sunderland & Back - 1 hour 41 minutes
(8) Sunderland & Back - 1 hour 41 minutes
(that's including that 78 & 8 inter work at Sunderland)
That would come to (for a full round trip on one vehicle) nearly 6 and a half hours. Split that into the timings and you need 13 vehicles. I'm not sure if you didn't already know that, it's just your post didn't look clear. If what you're trying to say is that 4896 might not get withdrawn because of it being younger than the R reg vehicles, it probably will be, and I would think all 13 limes would be withdrawn when their replacements arrive.