(11/06/2020 00:38)ant17612 Wrote:  40715 appears to of left the fleet and gone on trial in Ireland.

(15/06/2020 18:54)M60lad Wrote:  Other routes transfered from Eccles to Bolton are the rest of the Trafford Centre Routes:

126 Leigh-Trafford Centre
132 Wigan-Trafford Centre
300 Bolton-Trafford Centre EXPRESS

Also VH1 and VH2 services are also being operated by Bolton Depot for the time being.

Vehicle wise it seems that the 126/132 Trafford Centre Streetlites are now allocated to Bolton Depot who are using them on various routes despite what their branded for.

(15/06/2020 20:49)Mayneway Wrote:  Sounds like Diamond took on too much agreeing to run the MCT tenders.

(16/06/2020 11:54)Mrboo Wrote:  Not really they just need to open an outstation in South Mcr but they be wise to keep out of the way of stagecoach.

(16/06/2020 15:47)Mayneway Wrote:  Up until the start of covid 19 they struggled to staff the two depots they had in Manchester opening a third wouldn’t make sense.
Personally I think if they are going for work in other parts of Manchester like Ashton and Stockport they need to relocate Eccles to somewhere more central.

(16/06/2020 18:47)iMarkeh Wrote:  Are we sure Diamond actually want to expand right now in Manchester? They took on the routes under emergency tenders and at the time they took them on, no one knew how quick or slow the lockdown and thus reduced services would go on for. Diamond jumped on an opportunity to keep buses out on the road and drivers in work rather than furlough. It also helped increase revenue to help sustain the business at a time when the commercial route revenue is down.

Chances are, with the retendering, Diamond will lose some of the routes and it will become more manageable for them. It's just dealing with it short term until the retendering is complete.