(30 Jul 2014, 7:50 pm)Tom wrote I think this years investment will be:
*5 X Citaros to Hexham for the 'Tynedalexpress' services. This would allow 5229-5233 to transfer to Chester le Street for use on the 14 and X22 to boost passenger numbers, and reliability greatly improved for both services. Lolynes withdrawn as a result
* 9 X Versa to Peterlee for services 202/204/208/265. This would allow for the withdrawal MPDs.
* 5 X Optare Solo SR to Peterlee for services 201/206/209/210/923. This would allow 564/565/573/574 to transfer to Deptford for the replacement of four older MPDs with two remaining in East Durham livery for the 238. 618/619 would then transfer to Chester-le-Street for the 71 replacing two Renowns.
* 16 X E400 MMC to Washington for the X1. This would allow 6001 to transfer to Percy Main as a spare for the Cobalts, 6002 to Riverside as a spare for the TEN services, 6003 as a spare for the TTX, and the rest to Deptford to provide additional capacity for the 20/35. This would allow for the withdrawal of two Presidents, and the DFDS Lolynes, with the B7s transferring to Percy Main, replacing 3866, 3867, 3880 and 3873. 3890/3891 would replace various Lolynes. The remaining ones would see use on the Pronto.
* 14 X Citaros to Riverside for the Toon Link services, directly replacing B10BLEs and the B7RLEs to the Pulse.
*16 X Citaros to Stanley and Chester le Street, replacing B10BLEs.
*16 X B5LH to Riverside for the Crusader. The Citaros would transfer to Stanley for use on the X70/X71 and Red Kite, with the Omnicities going to the 17, and to Deptford for there runs of the 9, replacing B10BLEs.
Will be nice to see 5229-5233 on Chester services again, during that week in between the OK1s withdrawn and X84/X85s commencing they were all randomly allocated at Chester - as if they were Northern spares!
They wound up mainly on the 34s and X22s (surprisingly, 3983 seems to emerge from the darkness of the depot during the holidays for the X22), and the 71s and X25s.