(05 Sep 2014, 9:09 pm)RGR756V wrote I do wish people would not speculate on depots/outstations closing. If Crook were to close it would put me, and 85% of my colleagues, at a major disadvantage.
We had to put up with these rumours when the OK1 was withdrawn. If anything, I would anticipate Crook would regain some evening/Sunday work when the time comes for the B7s to be replaced. After all, the initial reason for us being there was to minimise dead mileage off the old 21. Granted, that does not currently happen but there is a reason for that, which I'm not fully sure of the answer to.
As for not putting new buses into an outstation, please remind me of the allocation of Consett.....
This is a thread which is designed for speculation, after all, isn't it? I certainly did say it wasn't 'to be taken as concrete', though it would deliver cost savings and as such, it's something that shouldn't be considered irrational.
I've seen comments on Facebook that Go North East's National Express operations will not move to Riverside, but let's see..! If the National Express staff are 'being put at a disadvantage' to deliver cost savings to the company by moving operations to another depot, why can't this happen at Crook? Isn't it management who have the ultimate say in this matter?
Slightly different story at Consett... Go North East had no other option but to invest into brand new minibuses, to replace the oldest minibuses in the fleet which had exceeded their "shelf lives", in order to gain the maximum amount of money which they could from these vehicles. They chose Consett, as this depot was presumably delivering the highest profit levels in terms of minibus operations. With Crook, they have the option to cascade other buses down, but it doesn't look like this will happen!