Southdown Buses go to become part of go-Ahead

[JonathanH]

If we're getting into hypotheticals I'd imagine they'll just get some ex-London stuff in whenever it's available, there are still 12 DOEs in service in London plus many E400s around 12-14 years old.

Somewhat easier to move vehicles from the Brighton fleet to Crawley given Metrobus and now Southdown are just an extension of the Brighton operation.

What was the last vehicle to move from the London operations to Crawley?

 

[MotCO]

Somewhat easier to move vehicles from the Brighton fleet to Crawley given Metrobus and now Southdown are just an extension of the Brighton operation.

What was the last vehicle to move from the London operations to Crawley?

Also most B&H buses are single doored

 

[Murray J]

Somewhat easier to move vehicles from the Brighton fleet to Crawley given Metrobus and now Southdown are just an extension of the Brighton operation.

What was the last vehicle to move from the London operations to Crawley?

Either way the vehicles will need a repaint and ex-London vehicles will be available quicker and likely be more modern.

 

[JonathanH]

Either way the vehicles will need a repaint and ex-London vehicles will be available quicker and likely be more modern.

Possibly, but I note that former Brighton vehicles replaced the YN53Rxx Scanias at Crawley, and Brighton was also the source for the more recently acquired BJ63UJx Volvos.

An odd survivor with Metrobus I saw today was 6939 YN56 FDP which seems to have outlasted the rest of its contemporaries by some margin.

I'd guess there are some changes to come at Crawley in any case with the new Hydroliners entering service, albeit that they are single deckers, replacing other single deckers.

I'll have to keep an eye out for whatever is operating the 411 (although I guess I can just check bustimes.org).

 

[Murray J]

An odd survivor with Metrobus I saw today was 6939 YN56 FDP which seems to have outlasted the rest of its contemporaries by some margin.

I'd guess there are some changes to come at Crawley in any case with the new Hydroliners entering service, albeit that they are single deckers, replacing other single deckers.

6939 seems to have survived primarily due to additional school routes being taken up by Metrobus without the acquiring of additional buses, there's also the issue of the Hydroliner introduction not going to plan with only about 5-6 out every day despite 15 being delivered by now.
There'll be plenty of B&H vehicles going spare next year when the E400MMCs arrive but I don't think Southdown's B7TLs can survive that long, they're pretty knackered.

 

[Hophead]

I'd expect managers of most Go-Ahead subsidiaries to be eagerly awaiting the delivery of Oxford's electric fleet and the subsequent cascades.

 

[MotCO]

Vehicles today were displaying Metrobus fleetnames on the dash at least, but still in blue, white and turquiose.