(08 Apr 2015, 4:33 pm)Dan wrote 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.