First Manchester

[gilesbus1]

RE: First Manchester

(04/11/2012 14:07)P528LND Wrote:  I can see the B7RLE's and the B9TL's being shifted out, but not the B10BLE's as their age accounts for First no longer needing to worry about them. However, is it possible that the older examples of Enviro400 (56 and 08) in the fleet down south could move up here to Wigan depot to shift out some of the B9TL's and B7RLE's? Just a thought, but if this was the case then the rest of the B7's that were still left could then just be replaced by Darts or more B10BLE's from either Oldham (the Pointer 2's from Pioneer, or possible reinstatement of other R reg's) or Manchester depot. Again it's just a thought, but it's a far cry better than seeing First-standard Volvo's being used by their partner in mass bus-industry crime!

If anyone could give me a number on how many 56 and 08 plate Enviro400's there are down south maybe this is a possibility, as I have heard they are earmarked for transfer this way and this is a possible outcome!

What Crime! Its called business wether a bus is standard or not really doesn't matter as long as it meets the requirement for any tender and its road worthy, those are the only concern, not wether it was bought by Stagecoach, FirstGroup, Arriva or any other such Company thats all irrelevant.

Plus I doubt FirstGroup can remove newer stock out and swap it with older stock as they are part of the agreed netbook sale and older assets are not to the same value and after all why would anybody pay £12.5m for a collection of nothing but 14 and 15 year old buses??? The asset price would be too high. So any such movement would require the finding of stock of equal value from within FirstGroup or the deal is nil and void as it would require renegociation as removal of those would knock circa £2m of the asset value.

In effect all or most of the fleet at Wigan is locked until after the sale is completed once the deal goes through thats entirely up to Stagecoach what it decides to do with them, it might move them away so the image isn't confused or it might start a rapid repainting scheme or it might temporarily remove them out of service for repainting, or it might sell them all onto EnsignBus or it might do nothing at all, the choice is there's.

That said B7RLE's or a future version of it will not leave Wigan as they would be standard fair in anycase for the Leigh Guided Busway that is openning in 2014 as MAN's and ADL' saloons cannot be used as theyt cannot be fitted currently with guide wheels, hence why Stagecoach bought 15 for use in Cambridge.