(19 Jun 2014, 3:52 pm)AIG20 wrote Interesting!
I wonder whether any more MAN ALX300s will be cascaded to Slatyford.

Though, if South Shields' two new E200s (that are due late July) are related to an increase in PVR, It would make sense to swap 22068/9/71 with 22022/49/50 to neaten up the allocations.

I don't think they will even consider transferring buses around just to keep the fleet numbers tidy 😀

(19 Jun 2014, 6:22 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote Have any of 28028/30-35 been noted in service as yet?

28030 was working the 16 service today and 28032 was out on the 13's (unfortunately couldn't get any photos of them as didn't have my camera with me).

(19 Jun 2014, 8:35 pm)AIG20 wrote This is probably because ousting all of the non-DDA buses is what is on their minds at the moment, as 22021 may have been sent to Slatyford to replace a knackered T-reg ALX300.

When did this leave Sunderland ??? I liked the destination display. Only MAN you can actually read on an evening. Lol

(19 Jun 2014, 7:06 pm)mrnut85 wrote I don't think they will even consider transferring buses around just to keep the fleet numbers tidy ?

No. I would but they wouldn't!

(20 Jun 2014, 3:58 pm)Roland Pratt wrote No. I would but they wouldn't!

What would it gain? Other than extra cost transferring buses around

I am told 22072 was spotted on a Slatyford service today

(20 Jun 2014, 4:07 pm)Richard Smiles wrote One wonders why Mr T Smoke bothered going on Holiday, ALL that sightseeing to do etc. & he spends his time reading the Forum, there's no escape

Haha I got home yesterday afternoon - been interesting to see how other areas work though!

(20 Jun 2014, 4:55 pm)Richard Smiles wrote Mr T Smoke's next Holiday, is to be two weeks in Barbados, lying in a Hammock, spending the entire time answering questions or just reading the NEB Forum

It's an addiction...gotta get your daily dosage of NEB!!

(20 Jun 2014, 4:55 pm)Richard Smiles wrote Mr T Smoke's next Holiday, is to be two weeks in Barbados, lying in a Hammock, spending the entire time answering questions or just reading the NEB Forum

Are you paying like? I'd happily do that! Haha

(20 Jun 2014, 4:57 pm)Dan wrote It's an addiction...gotta get your daily dosage of NEB!!

North East Buses - It's well worth a good NEB!

(20 Jun 2014, 5:23 pm)Richard Smiles wrote There are two words to that reply Mr Smoke & the second one is Off

Even if you went on Holiday to the North Pole in an Igloo for two weeks, you would still spend ALL of it on the Forum, when you could have been doing something exciting like Husky Racing.

That's boring. The huskies always win.

Gas bus on trade plates heading towards Angel of the north..

apparently all of slatyfords T-reg ALX 300S are to be withdrawn in the next coming weeks/months and replaced with newer south shields and sunderland ALX 300S. 22072 and I think 22021 (not 100% on that one) have already been re- allocated to slatyford, rumoured to replace 22479 and 22492 which are already delicensed. also rumoured is that slatyford will be receiving a unspecified euro 6 vehicle

(22 Jun 2014, 6:34 am)Richard Smiles wrote While speculation is always interesting, I prefer to work directly from the Official Stagecoach North East Fleet Allocation Cards, kindly supplied each month.

I am somewhat puzzled, as to why Slatyford would suddenly wish to replace 22479 & 22492, as these two vehicles, as you have rightly pointed out, have already been de-licenced, but they have been so now, for many months.

It would be just about possible, to replace ALL 12 of Slatyford's T4xxBNL non-DDA compliant MANs, but this in part would be down to whether South Shields could reduce the capacity slightly on Service X20 from a MAN operation (ALX 300) to an Enviro 200, using slightly fewer seats. Perhaps the South Shields Members of the Forum MrNutt85 & Half Pint could help us with this, as those two gentlemen, are in a far better position to know than I.

Sunderland are currently in the process of receiving 23 Scania GAS buses, replacing 23 MANs, but there is a requirement of 27 vehicles, so at least four of the DDA compliant MANs will have to be retained at Sunderland. Lets say for argument sake 22079 - 22082. This would then release 8 DDA compliant MANs (22021, 22072-22078) from Sunderland to Slatyford, to replace 8 out of their 12 non-DDA compliant vehicles, so you now need to find a further four.

South Shields have an Allocation of 5 MANs, of which only two appear to be formally allocated for use on Service X20.

I would therefore surmise that the additional 3 MANs allocated to South Shields, act as back up vehicles, probably for Service X34. So, if service X20 were to be operated by E200s, say the two New vehicles 37143 & 37144, potentially 4 MANs could be transferred to Slatyford to replace the remaining four non-DDA compliant vehicles, with the remaining MAN, acting as the X34 back up vehicle.

This is pure speculation on my part of course & so as previously mentioned, would rather wait for the Official Fleet Cards & the feedback to my comments from our South Shields Members.

There will still be several non-DDA compliant MANs to be replaced at Stockton Depot, even after delivery of our 25 New E300s later this year. So perhaps for next year, South Shields could get a batch of the New Enviro E400 MMC Double Deckers to Upgrade the E services, allowing the 27723 - 27740 batch of E300s to be cascaded to Stockton to oust the remaining non-DDA compliant MANs, and thus keeping ALL of the same type, at the one Depot.

Or better still, for Stockton to receive a batch of New Enviro 400 MMC vehicles. Just spotted a Flying Pig!!!!.

South Shields would only be able to release 2 MAN ALX300 as we are only getting 2 NEW buses, if we do release buses to Slatyford it would imagine it will be 22049/50 as they are the 2 we have the most trouble with

Does anyone know which gas bus has arrived, the one i seen heading past the angel of the north on trade plates?

(22 Jun 2014, 12:20 pm)AIG20 wrote I assume that is because they spent more than a year going to Newcastle and back, and you can see the effect it has had on the E400s. The X34 appears to be a "killer" route for the vehicles allocated to it.

Yeah X34 is a hard run for the buses

(22 Jun 2014, 2:04 pm)Michael wrote Does anyone know which gas bus has arrived, the one i seen heading past the angel of the north on trade plates?

Judging by a poor-quality photo which has been sent to me, the registration appears to be YP14 TGN, meaning that said vehicle is 28039.

(22 Jun 2014, 2:16 pm)Dan wrote Judging by a poor-quality photo which has been sent to me, the registration appears to be YP14 TGN, meaning that said vehicle is 28039.

Thanks Dan, =)

They seemed to arrived quicker than we thought =)

I would imagine 28040 should arrive early next week.

(22 Jun 2014, 2:47 pm)Richard Smiles wrote I am sort of hoping that 28040 is already here somewhere. The deadline for delivery of ALL 23 is this coming Friday 27 June 2014.

However, the Period 2 Fleet Card period expires today, with Period 3 starting tomorrow, hopefully with the Period 3 Cards arriving by email in my inbox by around Thursday, allowing me to do a full Fleet List Update. It would be therefore much easier, if all were able to be recorded.

However, as the vehicles usually take a few days to be prepared for service, it is likely we will have to wait until the Period 4 Card, before we can see the full vehicle cascade picture.

Hopefully it is, it could be behind the shutters, i would think they would want all 23 out by 30.6.14 ,depending if 28040 is here.

Then hopefully we see use of them on a Sunday on services not allocated to them.

If period 3 for the fleet allocations is out tomorrow, the month has gone fast.

(22 Jun 2014, 3:06 pm)Richard Smiles wrote Yes, The Period 3 Allocation Period starts tomorrow Michael, but it usually towards the end of the week Thursday or Friday, before I get a copy. That is just down though, to how the production system works, as more than one party and more than one Depot are involved in the Fleet Allocation Cards production.

Month has gone fast but tbh so is this year, won't be long before the new Stockton buses start to arrive

(22 Jun 2014, 3:13 pm)Richard Smiles wrote Yes, cant wait for the New Stockton E300s to arrive. We should have at least 10 by the time the Open Day at Stockton takes place.

Deliveries are due to start from Mid September and run through until Mid October.

Doesn't seem that far away, once they're all in service, we will be discussing next years orders

(22 Jun 2014, 3:20 pm)Michael wrote Doesn't seem that far away, once they're all in service, we will be discussing next years orders

You'd be surprised how early next years orders are being decided - probably around now! Of course it takes a whole for the information to filter through... Depending what contacts you have of course!

(22 Jun 2014, 3:35 pm)tyresmoke wrote You'd be surprised how early next years orders are being decided - probably around now! Of course it takes a whole for the information to filter through... Depending what contacts you have of course!

Its good to see they could already be deciding next years orders.

of course i hope Sunderland do well again but i can see Newcastle/Stockton or South Shields getting new buses.

(22 Jun 2014, 3:44 pm)Richard Smiles wrote Its a fairly long drawn out Process for Stagecoach UK Bus, as first The Individual Divisions have to put together Bids for vehicles & specify the Services they will be used on. Once the bidding process is completed, it takes a while for them to be processed & once the requirements are totalled, a second Bidding Process goes out to The Manufacturers to build the vehicles & how many of each type etc.

Though I doubt, they will land on Teesside, It would be nice to see Stagecoach North East get a supply of the New Enviro 400 MMC. Judging by previous posts, it sounds like the X34 would be a good candidate for an upgrade.

Never know, although the only area's i can see getting decker's is Newcastle and South Shields for the X34.

(22 Jun 2014, 3:44 pm)Richard Smiles wrote Its a fairly long drawn out Process for Stagecoach UK Bus, as first The Individual Divisions have to put together Bids for vehicles & specify the Services they will be used on. Once the bidding process is completed, it takes a while for them to be processed & once the requirements are totalled, a second Bidding Process goes out to The Manufacturers to build the vehicles & how many of each type etc.

Though I doubt, they will land on Teesside, It would be nice to see Stagecoach North East get a supply of the New Enviro 400 MMC. Judging by previous posts, it sounds like the X34 would be a good candidate for an upgrade.

Would personally like to see service 4 and 12 in Sunderland upgraded to gas buses (PVR 15, so 17 buses ordered), and also the Economic & X34 services upgraded to E400MMC (PVR 19, so 22 ordered).

This would total 39 vehicles, and hopefully there would be room for another upgrade somewhere too - perhaps in Newcastle.

(22 Jun 2014, 3:52 pm)Dan wrote Would personally like to see service 4 and 12 in Sunderland upgraded to gas buses (PVR 15, so 17 buses ordered), and also the Economic & X34 services upgraded to E400MMC (PVR 19, so 22 ordered).

This would total 39 vehicles, and hopefully there would be room for another upgrade somewhere too - perhaps in Newcastle.

For me it would have to be the 4/10/11 - 21 PVR - they seem the busiest routes with enviro's.

(22 Jun 2014, 4:29 pm)Richard Smiles wrote In reply to your comment about Newcastle Services getting an upgrade, I do wonder about replacements for 27506 - 27510 on Service 100, as they don't appear to be the most reliable of vehicles ?.

I think upgrading service 100 has been mentioned previously, and if I remember rightly, someone said that Stagecoach had chosen against it due to the fact that the current model has been discontinued, and no other single-deck Enviro has the same high number of seats? Could be well off with that one, though.

(22 Jun 2014, 4:36 pm)Richard Smiles wrote Yeah, you could be right there Dan, I think the reason for that particular Model was indeed based on Seating Capacity specifically for Service 100, to provide more capacity.

What is the capacity on them?

Only being on them once and i liked them.

Can they not use decker's on the 100?

(22 Jun 2014, 4:44 pm)Michael wrote What is the capacity on them?

Only being on them once and i liked them.

Can they not use decker's on the 100?

I think they seat 48, but the gas buses only seat 43 and the E300s on the Economic services seat 45.

May only be a couple of seats, but makes a difference during peak times!

(22 Jun 2014, 4:44 pm)Michael wrote What is the capacity on them?

Only being on them once and i liked them.

Can they not use decker's on the 100?

There is a low height railwaybridge just before the metro centre which the 100 sometimes uses. They are probably pretty cagey about using deckers for that reason as when the 100 first came out years ago the only time a decker appeared it was old olmpian 607 C607 LFT and got deroofed on that one occasion

(22 Jun 2014, 4:44 pm)Michael wrote Can they not use decker's on the 100?

Technically, yes! But one of the routes they take through Dunston (near where the Federation Brewery used to be) has a low bridge and a few double-deckers have been "de-roofed" in the past.

Edit: ifm001 beat me to it!