(30 Jul 2014, 4:39 pm)Robert wrote I think these spares will come from new buses been purchased for other routes producing free buses to replace the older vehicles. It's also possible to think that if 80 vehicles are going to be purchased this year, then approximately 74 vehicles are going to get displaced meaning 74 of those 98 buses that need to be withdrawn will have replacements, providing some don't go off onto other services. That leaves just 22 buses that need to be withdrawn which can be replaced in next years investment.
In my opinion, I see this as been the most logical way of doing things and probably won't cost as much.
Let's say we went with my idea minus "East Durham", As said earlier he expects all the MPD's to be Withdrawn in 2016, So I had down (Pronto/X66/Lime and Toonlink) which has a Total PVR of 42, as the X66 would require double the PVR, To then provide the same amount seats Per Hour as the Artics do now.
This would mean 38 New Vehicles would be Red Spares, and would therefore directly replacing Older Vehicles in the Fleet, Without the Number of Spares being Reduced, As a Result of Vehicles being Withdrawn, They could be either Sold to other Operators or for Scrap, I think Go North East would prefer the first option, This would mean any Money made would be then Reinvested Towards the New Vehicles, Meaning Go North East would have saved Money in the Process.
Alternatively they could for example trade in Vehicles with Optare for example, like they did last year with the Citylink Artics, which then meant they got the Versas at a Discounted Price, again Saving them Money.