Stagecoach Manchester and Wigan

[gilesbus1]

RE: Stagecoach Manchester

(04/11/2012 16:33)ace Wrote:  

(02/11/2012 23:29)gilesbus1 Wrote:  I think its quite right to say Olympians in in the short term as Arrows are elderley and none standard.

Also MAN's and Dart SLF's out of reserve is quite likely plus any deckers that might be not allocated to any fleet and are out going in Manchester.

The longer term plan will be as I said before to mark in Low Floor MagicBuses for schools at Wigan and to repaint them either back to corporate or into school livery. I cannot confirm as I said that they are 02 regs but there are a further batch of London cascades for Magic's due in at Manchester which would cascade older Magics out to Wigan - It would be logical that it would be the East Lancs types acquired elsewhere as presumably Wigan has East Lancs Pyoneer spares and Arrow spares which to some degree would be interchangable, rather than throwing the spares out.

Volvo B10BLE's at Gillmoss I aren't sure about, yes mechanically it makes sense, but the spec's on them probably isn't to TfGM standard so there uses might be limited.

An early replacement target would be the Dart SLF's as they are on the long side of age profile for what is a lightweight model. The Optare Excels where always going, I have been told that there is an issue with the floors on them which will need attention that would be too costly to repair, those that have already gone have gone because that has become an issue already.

In the longer term we might ask what the new Wigan - Manchester service promised will mean as that is the first route development promised.

If there's another batch of cascades from London coming, then wouldn't it make more sense to send them to Wigan along with the other London ones already in Manchester? None of these have been painted into Magic yet so it would save a lot of time and expense as they are already Stagecoach Livery. I can see your point about the East Lancs types but I think there's only about 4 or 5 of them in Manchester on Magic as they are mostly Olympians and Tridents.

They are unlikely to cascade any ex London deckers into wigan as they are for schools use and low floor London deckers are not allowed on TfGM contract work as the staircase faces the wrong way, therefore provincial stock would have to be swapped with London stock on what are largely commercial services. As Wigan already has B9TL's there isd unlikely to be any other decker demand once the Arrows and eventually the Olympians have gone as the network requiring deckers is relatively small unlike other depots.

There could be question marks over other none standard but similar vehicles at Stagecoach transfering over such as B7TL Wright Eclipse Gemini's at Road Car or Volvo B7RLE's at Road Car or the only other Volvo B9TL's but with East Lancs Olympus bodies at Bluebird. However equally over time I guess the ex Wigan stuff could equally go in teh opposite direction in the interests of standardisation and centralising engineering costs.

Another point about the Wigan takeover is one might now ask what the long term future of Chorley depot might be as it could be quite easy to split it between Wigan and Preston and therefore create license positions for use elsewhere should eventually other operations be bought by Stagecoach in South Lancashire or Merseyside. However I guess space at Preston is at a premium.