(08 Apr 2015, 4:15 pm)ifm001 wrote What's the difference between these new ones and existing batch of 19 36461-36479 other than WiFi. If nothing why bother introducing them if they are not upgrading just getting g the same. Give them to another depot who needs updates. They are too small in any case.

Well the cascades haven't yet been "confirmed", so to speak, so it's hard for anyone to give an answer to this.

These new Dennis Dart SLF 4/Alexander Enviro 200 vehicles can allow for a number of different cascades; however, the most obvious one which sprung to mind for me was the replacement of of the six Dennis Dart SLF/Alexander Pointer 2 vehicles (35190 - 35195) and fourteen MAN 14.240 LF/Alexander Enviro 200 vehicles (39701 - 39714) at South Shields, which would total 20 vehicles. These vehicles are Euro 3 and Euro 4 respectively. Bus operators naturally expect reliability to increase with the implementation of new vehicles and this provides scope for the amount of spare vehicles at a depot to be reduced, so 19 new vehicles replacing 20 existing wouldn't be too out of the ordinary. If these were to be replaced by the new Dennis Dart SLF 4/Alexander Enviro 200 vehicles, South Shields would have a depot comprising of primarily Euro 5 vehicles (19194/96/97 are Euro 4, 22050/67/70 are Euro 3, 22734 is Euro 2).

A possible (and sensible in my view) cascade for those 20 vehicles would be to Hartlepool Depot, allowing for the withdrawal of the earliest Dennis Dart SLF/Alexander Pointer 2 vehicles in Stagecoach's fleet. There is currently 16 Pointer 2 Darts allocated to Hartlepool Depot to cover a PVR of 15 on services 1, 3 and 4. There is currently 19 Enviro200s to cover a PVR of 15 on services 6/7. If South Shields' 14 were to join Hartlepool's fleet, these could be used to form the allocation of all of Hartlepool's services, with South Shields' Pointer 2 Darts forming the spare allocation.