Diamond Bus North West

[gilesbus1]

RE: Diamond Bus North West

(14/12/2019 19:43)T42 PVM Wrote:  Its possible First might extend the lease of these Buses

I can't see it, there is still the issue on the First front of none payment of leases, and on the Diamond front there is the need to reduce costs by removing expensive to lease vehicles first of all, these are the newer vehicles. I would expect the entire batch to be withdrawn after use on Christmas Eve and go to which ever First fleet they are off to between Christmas and New Year.

There is however the possibility Diamond could source something secondhand from somewhere or find vehicles within the Rotala Group. If they did do this, former London Scania deckers would be a good bet. There may be some kind of operational shortage, so therefore some secondhand vehicles may be sourced from dealers, in the longer term if deckers where bought secondhand they would allow cascading to Preston to upgrade the double-deck fleet further there. My own feelings having seen this operator is that they will simply buy what they can get easily and that may be further saloons, after all this might further reduce the number of new saloons required as information suggests 40 new saloons are also to be expected before Christmas 2020, although none of these have yet been ordered.