The following is a depiction of MY ideas, prophecies and predications on whats going to happen at Stagecoach's Chorley Depot and, for the purpose of the following, it has to be assumed that anything contained within this message has not be verified by ANY reliable source..
So here goes..
I was mentioning earlier in this thread about the possibility of Chorley getting 5 Enviro's in October, and there was a question about where the 5 tridents they displaced would go.. Well..
Its likely that there will not be any Tridents displaced
It could start with 15466 could be in Chorley late September for VF'ing, followed by the 5 new 59 reg Scania Enviro's.
This should allow for the following displacements, 14201 and 16669/70
The last two being back at Preston at the moment, allegedly on loan, but the way i see it, Preston loaned them to Chorley until the end of the academic year whilst the 68's went onto a Winter timetable, with the agreement that when the year had finished and the 68 was on Summer timetable, they would return to Preston, hence thats why they never lost the 68 route branding, its possible they could return to help out for a couple of months, or something similar sent in thier place.
The last two displacement spaces would be used to send away tridents for long term work, likely suspects at the moment being 18150 and 18154, (but this will probably change) so that when they return they can displace some slightly older tridents elsewhere, which would probably coincide with the rest of the '59 reg Enviro fleet arriving at Chorley.
Now you have to consider something thats going to happen in 2 to 3 years time.. assuming that Chorley is still 'as is' and not part of some Super Depot at Walton Summit with outstations at Fleetwood and Westhoughton
The Volvo's and B10's used by Chorley are mainly P and R reg buses, by the start of the 2012/13 academic year they will be rendered 'unusable' in two ways.
1) GMPTE stipulates on its tender contracts that buses used must be younger than 15 years old
2) By then the buses will not be at all suitable for use on the 125/6 service
So they will have to be cascaded away (with the possible exception of 16635 which may remain as a 'Heritage Bus') and Tridents kept for school work
The PVR by then could be..
22 Enviro's for the 125/6 Service
8 to 10 Tridents for Schools work, probably being 18150-18159 and probably 18138 as they are 04/54 reg and include CCTV on some of them, with the rest being CCTV equipped
2 to 3 Darts for 109 Service
anything up to 5 'Tender Spec' Single deckers to operate any of the 'low bridge' tenders
Plus the usual minibuses
The Enviro's will probably signal an end to investment in Chorley for a few years until the Solos need replacing, which could be anything up to the 2014 fiscal year.
Just a few thoughts
