First Manchester

[M60lad]

RE: First Manchester
Its not just 94s that Queens use Solos on though, there appearing reguarly now on 42 Middleton-Manchester service, twice I've had a Solo on the route now, earlier this week 40331 was allocated to the route.

Regarding the situation at Oldham Depot it depends on how the allocation of Solos is sorted the previous night as depending on who the router is the Solos could say end up on Rochdale work instead of their primary routes (12,125,415s). Also one or 2 could be off the road for MOT/Inspectons/Breakdowns.

One other thing though is despite people thinking the current batch of Solos at Oldham are probably reliable they have had a hard life as before Metroshuttle they were in the West Coast Mainline Rail Replacement fleet at Trafford Park at one point, then they went to QS and were used daily on 100 to Warrington, after Metroshuttle they went to Tameside Depot and were daily used on 387 going up Ridge Hill and Mottram Road daily.

So reliabilty now will be suffering, really I can't understand why First Manchester if they are now having problems with the Solos are not looking at getting suitable replacements