Greater Manchester Franchising Tranche 3

[Owl]

RE: Greater Manchester Franchising Tranche 3

(12/05/2024 19:25)knutstransport Wrote:  How many repaints would occur without franchising? Obviously commercial operators recoup vehicle associated costs through fares and subsides.

Off the top of my head Go Goodwins vehicles were repainted in Diamond colours and multiple depots have transferred both to and from First Bus over the years. While some of the vehicles D&G use on the 88, 130 and 385 routes were originally in different liveries (including Go Goodwins') and Belle Vue have repainted a vehicle less than 2 years old that transferred from Little Gem.

Even though the likes of First and Arriva usually retain vehicles for their lifetime, they've both done corporate rebrands. In the case of Arriva painting some buses into Sapphire livery and then back into standard Arriva livery.

While it is true that a proportion of the fleet would have been repainted anyway, and correct that some vehicles will have had several liveries ( Stagecoach beachball, Magic bus , New Stagecoach and Bee Network for some of the Middleton buses), Bee network are paying to repaint 14 year old vehicles into the new livery. They surely cannot provide anything like a sensible service life after the repaint.