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Any discussion on quality will be subjective, and I expect views of the same vehicle type will vary depending on who you ask. Passengers, drivers, fleet engineers and company accountants will all have opinions and I strongly suspect that these won't always align. Indeed, how do you define build...

I couldn't quite remember the timings, but I think the falling out with Optare was a little earlier then. I recall it did lead to a hiatus in Stagecoach placing orders with them.

Didn't Stagecoach also stop dealing with Optare for a while because of a commercial falling out between Stagecoach and Optare during the period of competition in Preston. The issue arose after Optare broke confidentiality clauses and revealed details of the destination of a batch of Solos then...

Plaxton also produced significant numbers of coaches for the MOD and it's contractors and this provided a regular order stream onto which stock-builds and other orders could be bolted. In combination these would have provided meaningful work to justify production line space. I believe Irizar...

The MMCs really were a step-change from what went before. It's a pity that the company's finances are such that the delivery of the MMCs hasn't really been built upon. I'd hoped they might have acted as a springboard that would see the cycle of importing mid to end of life double deckers broken...

As @Whisky Papa has taken us to Cornwall how about a real rarity the Rowe Hillmaster, built in East Cornwall in the 1950s by M.G Rowe (Motors) Ltd of Dobwalls. Five PSVs (plus an unregistered prototype) were produced. The first a Whitson bodied 38-seat coach was operated by Rowe's own coaching...

But they all had Plaxton Pointer 2 bodies. @stadler is referring to the fact that there were only two 11.3m Dennis Darts with the original style of low floor Plaxton Pointer body.

I believe the AD24 part of the Alexander Dennis business has been carrying out some work for Oxford Bus Company on their 66 plate Streetdecks (the AD24 workshops do repair, refurbishment and rebuild work on makes other than just ADL). It's possible that the vehicle is on loan to cover vehicles...

They're not local Sevenoaks routes though, they're Sevenoaks school routes - in terms of the fare structure and who they're aimed at that is an important distinction. They bring children in and take children out (some over some distance). Most of the S lettered routes have end to end journey...

I think it was A726 LNC (as 84-D-7221?) and A762 NNA (as 84-D-7336) that ended up at Kell's. A764 NNA also ended up in Ireland (as 84-D-7309) but I don't think this ever succumbed to the "care" of Kell's. Unfortunately the news is no better for this one as it is recorded as being burnt out in 2003.

Was being used by St Hugh of Lincoln School, Stretford as a learning bus by 2018. It was still there in 2021 and it looks like there is a bus in the school ground on Google Earth imagery dated 2023. Exported to Cuba in 2000, nothing more recent Went to Passenger Vehicle Spares of Carlton...

Sorry, if I'm misreading your post, but your tone is coming across somewhat rude. No, I'm not purporting to be a bodywork expert - just correcting the erroneous statement that it was purchased for spares. This wasn't the intention. Indeed, the SELNEC Preservation Trust confirm this on their...

RNA220J wasn't purchased as a source of spares, it was purchased for preservation. The SELNEC preservation society had originally intended it to be preserved into SELNEC livery (to complement the three other Mancunians they already had) - so that between the four vehicles they could have a...

Seemingly not for much longer based on this BBC News report https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-66806441.amp

To be honest 53 seats (with toilet) in a 12.3m coach doesn't sound especially poor and none of the journey times are very long. It's pretty standard spec for a Tourismo and numerous other operators use vehicles like this successfully, including on touring work. I'd assume these use one of the...

Well known bus and coach operator Heyfordian Travel of Bicester, Oxfordshire is the latest company to unfortunately cease trading. A note at the bottom of their website confirms the sad news: https://www.heyfordian.co.uk/ A BBC news article has some further info on their school contracts...

Yes, agreed although I'd also add the U1 (dropping the U prefix) group into the mix given the route's profile. It certainly does some heavy tourist and visitor lifting in the summer months. So essentially the east-west (red) and north-south (blue) trunk routes, plus the open top services (but as...

Yes, I think 507RUO was on loan from David Hoare's Chepstow Classic to Warrick Hulme's Rubicon Classic operation between 1999 and 2003.

Chepstow Classic Buses is run by David Hoare who is well known and long active in the bus preservation world. I think the festival shuttle from Castle Cary station to the Glastonbury Festival site is run by Alan Peters' ABus with vehicles hired in from Chepstow Classic, Centurion Coaches, Steve...

@Simon75 has in post #12 above.