(19/02/2015 02:37)bolton bus basher Wrote:  The final Olympian with Stagecoach Manchester has been taken out of Service, 16798. Lot of *idle gossip* floating around regarding its future so will hold back until stuff's confirmed. I think its even left Middleton Depot today!

(19/02/2015 00:40)mbonwick Wrote:  Just because it sounded fine once upon a time, doesn't mean it ended up like that....

I don't know the details of 22132, but it could so easily have suffered major engine failure (e.g. piston detachment), had a minor fire, etc etc. It's also possible that the engine wasn't the problem but that it suffered chassis corrosion/rotting/cracking.

At the end of the day, it's up to Stagecoach what they do with their ELVs and when, so please stop going on about how quick they're disposed of.

(19/02/2015 19:32)Dentonian Wrote:  Yes, a slight over reaction, methinks. The "haste" bit certainly sounds true in the light of the 60 or so redundant buses piled up at Bolton. No haste to get the remaining "ELV" MANs shifted now.

(19/02/2015 19:30)Dentonian Wrote:  Apologies. Its very unusual to have weekday replacement work. I'm assuming it was very localised between Victoria and St. Peter's Square or somewhere. Certainly no sign of Metrolink replacement buses at the Piccadilly end. Even though its half-term in some parts of GM, the proportion of schools services run by Stagecoach is fairly low, so I wouldn't imagine there were many buses involved.

(20/02/2015 20:53)Dentonian Wrote:  Whoa! Hang on. 17002/10/1 are in London on Rail replacement associated work, and 17243 is no longer a Stagecoach bus, and has never been a Stagecoach Manchester/Wigan bus. However, you mentioning 19088/9 does give some clue as to what might have happened. These are both Wigan buses, and as Wigan Schools are usually out of step with the rest of GM, I'm guessing it was their half-term last week. Wigan also have a higher proportion of schools work than other Stagecoach Manchester depots - hence a few to spare last week. The newer Enviro400s could have been made available by delaying repaint of cascaded Enviro400s into MagicBus livery, and I suppose a few others could have been resourced by not running 50 or 192 shorts, and dropping the odd 86.
I think you must be right about St. Peters Square as well. I don't get much chance to venture out at lunch time, but I did nip down to Chorlton Street and back up Portland Street to Lever Street, one day last week (I think it was Tuesday, actually), and I certainly didn't see any Metrolink replacement buses, and trams have certainly been running from Undercroft along Aytoun Street the whle time. The only thing I have noticed recently is more "double" trams off-peak.....leading to inevitable delays to buses and other traffic both on Aytoun Street and London Road.