Diamond Bus North West

[Y458 KNF]

RE: Diamond Bus North West

(09/12/2020 17:46)Winston Wrote:  NXWM didn't dispose of any deckers at the start of the pandemic, but had 1000 x buses SORN instead. The ex First leased deckers weren't required at the time, new Streetdecks were on the way, so why bother paying First to continue leasing deckers parked up earning nothing ?? the deckers being newer would of had higher leasing costs too.

GNW haven't purchased a single new bus since entering Manchester. They've only brought in mid life refurbished buses from around group + some newer ex stock Enviro200's. Considering the size of Rotala Group, the size of the Wrightbus order & DBNW allocation is pretty impressive in my book. By summer 2021, Bolton will have circa 140 Euro 6 double deckers bought brand new & all less than two years old, it seems some people are never satisfied.

Another batch of ex First leased B7RLE's will be gone from Bolton by the end of this year, there are another 9 x Streetdecks already allocated registrations/fleetnumbers & I believe there are still another 18 due by end of Dec/early Jan before there will be a gap in deliveries (down to Wrightbus production) before the remaining 39 x Streetdecks arrive May-June 2021. Considering the B7RLE's are in such poor condition, First have homes already allocated for the ones returning & I doubt they'll see much TLC (some may get a repaint at most). Rotala purchased the 28 x B7RLE off First at a good price, thus making it more cost effective to buy them than continue leasing until they are fully withdrawn from Bolton by early summer 2021, therefore, they don't need to last another 12 months, some are potentially earmarked to replace trainers once finishing in passenger service.


Part of the original order, Preston were originally intended to have 8 in total, but the other 4 were diverted to Bolton instead.

Ive worked out that 43 StreetDecks are still due excluding the 10 have already been registered and assigned fleet numbers if its still 132 vehicles in total.