Diamond Bus North West

[Winston]

RE: Diamond Bus North West

(09/12/2020 10:44)Mayneway Wrote:  Are you for real?? It’s always been within their control. They returned all the deckers at the start of the pandemic which raised a lot of eyebrows. They have sold a number of young deckers and have just put up for sale a number of single deckers in a lot better condition than the B7’s. It’s a poor business decision and very much in their control.

The ex First double deckers weren't needed for capacity at the start of the pandemic (during first lockdown) as everyone was advised against travelling by bus. I think you'll find once the latest batch of 9 x Streetdecks (40795-804) enter service, Bolton will have the highest proportion of double deckers it's had for a long time.

Most if not all of the newer buses that are disposed of are leased, the 4 x Volvo B5LH recently dispensed with at Preston will be replaced with 4 x new Streedecks May-June 2021 when the final batch of 39 in total arrive for Bolton & Preston. Those 4 Hybrids were bought off the lessor, but they are non standard in the fleet. The Scania/Esteems currently up for sale are not liked by Rotala, the Preston examples are very tatty externally.

General:

All of the white DF Streetlites at DBWM & DBNW were ordered for Hallmark Connections to upgrade the Hotel Hoppa fleet to Euro 6 to comply with new emission rulings coming in. At present only a skeleton Hotel Hoppa service is running as very few are flying, they are still destined to join Hallmark in the future. There's nothing to say that new DB spec Streetlites won't be ordered to replaced the Hotel Hoppa ones in the future, that has certainly been suggested for those running at Kidderminster depot if the newer buses boost patronage.