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I would imagine the amount of money ITV are willing to pay also has something to do with it. Can't see Stagecoach being willing to pull a Solo from service to the day if the price on offer is only worthy of a 709D...

(12/03/2014 19:29)mbonwick Wrote: [ -> ]I would imagine the amount of money ITV are willing to pay also has something to do with it. Can't see Stagecoach being willing to pull a Solo from service to the day if the price on offer is only worthy of a 709D...

Yep I agree. Better to use a bus that's technically an ancillary vehicle rather than a vehicle that could be used in service.

Which route has the most frequency on a saturday please

(12/03/2014 20:54)dave4jackie Wrote: [ -> ]Which route has the most frequency on a saturday please

192 & 142/3 spring to mind,all about every 2/3 mins (At peak can even be every 1 min!)

How long have the following got left I wonder:

2X optare spectra double deckers
The dennis trident ALX400 deckers
Any remaining olympians
The oldish darts
MAN 18220 ALX 300s

Some of the ALX300 lot are getting particularly old now, especially the S reg examples. Thought stagecoach would've seen em all of by now & replaced by the enviro 200 darts I.E. 36104 & friends.

(13/03/2014 15:28)33109 Wrote: [ -> ]How long have the following got left I wonder:

2X optare spectra double deckers
The dennis trident ALX400 deckers
Any remaining olympians
The oldish darts
MAN 18220 ALX 300s

Some of the ALX300 lot are getting particularly old now, especially the S reg examples. Thought stagecoach would've seen em all of by now & replaced by the enviro 200 darts I.E. 36104 & friends.

The olympians are definitely on borrowed time, I don't know of any oldish darts left apart from 33174 (which is mainly ancillary only rarely used in service), even the 04-reg ex-Dennis's 33098-100 are in reserve.

The MAN's have plenty of life left in them I reckon, and will probably stay at Ashton until they're too old for anything. The Trident's are nearly all Magic Bus and would probably be transferred to other fleets at some point, only one has been scrapped ex-Manchester: 17651 and that was accident-damage related. The Optare Spectras - I don't know whether they'll be transferred to Magic Bus livery or sold on.

33174 isn't officially allocated.

The spectras will be sold - they're non-standard, not DDA compliant and older than the entirety of the MagicBus fleet.

(13/03/2014 15:28)33109 Wrote: [ -> ]How long have the following got left I wonder:

2X optare spectra double deckers
The dennis trident ALX400 deckers
Any remaining olympians
The oldish darts
MAN 18220 ALX 300s

Some of the ALX300 lot are getting particularly old now, especially the S reg examples. Thought stagecoach would've seen em all of by now & replaced by the enviro 200 darts I.E. 36104 & friends.

Some of the 'S' reg MAN's sound and run far better than quite a few of their younger colleagues. I am still puzzled why the likes of 22130 are still shown as being in reserve when its been operating at Stockport for months.

(13/03/2014 15:28)33109 Wrote: [ -> ]How long have the following got left I wonder:

2X optare spectra double deckers
The dennis trident ALX400 deckers
Any remaining olympians
The oldish darts
MAN 18220 ALX 300s

Some of the ALX300 lot are getting particularly old now, especially the S reg examples. Thought stagecoach would've seen em all of by now & replaced by the enviro 200 darts I.E. 36104 & friends.

All of these are slowly but surely disappearing from Manchester.
I would be surprised if the Spectras were still on the road in Manchester 12 months from now to be honest. They are already older than a good few taken out of front line service.
The current fleet of tridents is slowly diminishing. Odd ones have been cascaded, though barring accidents it'll be a while before they are disposed of yet. By the end of 2016 at the latest all the current none DDA ones will be gone.
The remaining Olympians are rarely used for public service now and are fast approaching the end of their lives. Another 12 months should see them disappear also.
Given that the 04 reg darts have been put in reserve, it is clear there is no place for them in Manchester anymore, so the likelihood is they will be cascaded fairly soon.
As for the MAN ALX 300's, they'll run until they drop in Manchester, though if they are not DDA compliant they would have to be withdrawn at the end of 2016.

Thanks for the gen ace, its a shame about the spectras as they're really nice clean buses always well turned out. Most of the 04 darts IIRC are the enviro sort anyway so should last a bit longer.

However strange though it seems I miss the old white stagecoach livery, would love to see an adl decker retro'd.