(01 Nov 2014, 2:44 pm)Jimmi wrote I think 1404/5/6 were rumoured to be moving to Belmont depot and 1407 will stay at Darlington depot, but I'm not sure that this is still the case. I think Pulsars were rumoured to be used on the 75/76 as I think Arriva are started to be pressured into putting younger buses on this route.
I think the ex Durham Park and Ride Solos are displacing the newer MPDs to Blyth depot. I think Darlington were also due to receive an additional 5 Solos from Belmont depot following the Service 23 StreetLites entering service but this hasn't happened.
I think the additional Solos and Omnicitys arriving at Darlington depot soon will help withdraw the older Darts and I imagine Arriva will invest in new buses to replace the Darts and other non DDA compliant buses by the end of next year.
Service 8/8A definitely needs better buses as them Darts can't cope with the route, recently I have seen these services running 10 minutes late alot lately and that's if they haven't broken down, they didn't seem to have these problems when MPDs were allocated. I don't think Pulsars would be suitable as I think they would struggle to get round York Hill Estate in Spennymoor.
To be honest, Pulsars get round tighter spots than York Hill, I don't think they'd have a problem on the 8's at all. Bearing in mind before the X21 got announced, they were going to use EcoCity's on there! Personally I think they should bin the 8A off and just have the 8 up and down to Spennymoor, but the buses they use on there definitely need to be upgraded.