A couple of todays PM 462s were an Olympian and a Megabus coach!
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Stagecoach West/South West/South Wales - Fleet News & Discussion
- Thread starter Temple Meads
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Temple Meads
Established Member
Looks like the Altanos have lost their SG** fleet numbers - certainly the two I saw today didn't have any.
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
Elite 55024 was still carrying SG29 on Saturday
Any ideas which depots they’re going to?
Marcus Fryer
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L800 SGB now carries fleet number 52692 and C&G legals.
Without the registration has suddenly been moved the coach is nearly 25 years old (M419VYD new to Eastville, Bristol)! I wasn't expecting Stagecoach to actually use most of the more 'mature' fleet from SGCB, this must be doing wonders for their fleet age profile!
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
I'm sure it won't be a long term thing. Give it a month or two and they'll have sourced some newer coaches and iffy Tridents (though not as iffy as First).
It's quite something to see Stagecoach using 2005 Tridents on schools work and the odd 3, whilst First have 2001 ones on core routes (and not just Q busting).
Marcus Fryer
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It's a Van Hool bodied Volvo, so presumably is the erstwhile M419 VYD. Doesn't look its age.
Details of Cheltenham and Gloucester's 'new' vehicles are now on the Steve Knight site:
https://www.stevenknightmedia.com/fleet-news-ramblings
Amazingly (as they've had two months to arrange replacements!) it includes 13 vehicles over 20 years old including the 30 year old Citybus. I suspect the majority wlll have to go before the end of next month because of the PSVAR changes.
Surely the PSVAR regs (Coaches w/e from 31/12/19) won't affect vehicles used on Contracts?
It will be interesting to see how Merc minibuses currently classified as 'Coaches' and used on Stage Carriage work fare, I assume they will have to stop running on bus routes.
As far as Stagecoach/South Gloucestershire are concerned, as said before, the older vehicle could be replaced by cascades from within Stagecoach But Stagecoach might actually be happy to lose Contract work when they come up for renewal/retender.
With the London LEZ next October and the Bristol CAZ looming, SC may need to invest in some new Euro 6 vehicles for both Bristol bus routes and Megabus.
The contracts wont be effected, however I imagine that Stagecoach wont want the bother of segregating them given the newer vehicles available in the group. There were a couple of 04 Tridents in the 'out of use' area at Gloucester over the weekend for instance (in past years C&G would just have not given back some of the loan vehicles for last weekend's Cheltenham races!!).
The CAZ might effect some of the 462 journeys if the school journeys it's connected to are out of the CAZ area.
By my reckoning this now makes North Bristol Cheltenham and Gloucester's biggest depot.
Not sure what point you're trying to make, yesterday was day 1 of SGBC being Stagecoach owned, and as the purchase included all assets, the entire SGBC fleet has been given fleetnumbers.
The SGBC vehicles won't last long, but they were part of the deal.
In other instances of takeovers (Plymouth or Chester for example) Stagecoach usually has new(er) vehicles out from day 1. It's rare that a takeover (with the amount of notice there's been and all the positive spin that Stagecoach was issuing a couple of months ago ) results in so little change especially given the small size of the fleet. 30 Year old coaches on commuter services isnt a 'a really exciting development for passengers in the West of England' to quote the MD.
No fleet was acquired with Plymouth.
All of the vehicles that came with Chester gained Stagecoach numbers. Not a good example to quote as Chester had to be a 1-for-1 swap on takeover day due to there being no spare space in the old depot to store vehicles.
Wigan would be a better example where the worst of the fleet were binned on day 1, but decent numbers of older vehicles lasted a good few months still.
Also bear in mind that most of the SGBC fleet is used on (low-margin) contract work (indeed their accounts for last year state that Megabus work is all that has kept them solvent), so there's hardly any incentive to make any huge changes on day 1.
EDIT: Also good luck trying to find spare coaches around the Stagecoach empire, there's not many at the moment....
All of the vehicles that came with Chester gained Stagecoach numbers. Not a good example to quote as Chester had to be a 1-for-1 swap on takeover day due to there being no spare space in the old depot to store vehicles.
Wigan would be a better example where the worst of the fleet were binned on day 1, but decent numbers of older vehicles lasted a good few months still.
Also bear in mind that most of the SGBC fleet is used on (low-margin) contract work (indeed their accounts for last year state that Megabus work is all that has kept them solvent), so there's hardly any incentive to make any huge changes on day 1.
EDIT: Also good luck trying to find spare coaches around the Stagecoach empire, there's not many at the moment....
Barring megabus SGBC doesn’t fit within a typical stagecoach ops. My theory is it was for the depot and not a lot else
although they hired some tridents and B7s from first for a period of time
The 11-plate E200s are understood to be going to Swindon.
DaveHarries
Established Member
Interesting. For what route(s) I wonder? Or perhaps seeing off any Pointer Dart SLFs?
Dave
goldisgood
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I'd presume to replace the Darts, which really do need to be replaced from the sound of it!
Some are ok, some not so good.
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
Quite. Last year, had two back to back from Cirencester to Swindon and then to Wroughton. First one (ex NEast) was an absolute nail but the next one (exWales) was a decent machine.
Do you remember fleet numbers? Was it 34665 the ex-Wales one? That’s a good bus for a 54 plate!
TheGrandWazoo
Veteran Member
Just checked #964 where I shared the details of the journey. The bad one was 34563 - lucky to still have my fillings, whilst the good one was... 34665
For a hard worked 14 year old machine (in 2018), it was in very good shape.I brought 665 from Cwmbrân two years ago ☺️ Still a good bus today! Pictured here on the 54 in Royal Wootton Bassett.Just checked #964 where I shared the details of the journey. The bad one was 34563 - lucky to still have my fillings, whilst the good one was... 34665
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-Colly405-
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For those interested, it seems as though the yellow deckers inherited by North Bristol depot with the purchase of SGBC are likely to be around until the end of this school term, and then replaced by "newer models with CCTV" in January.
Source: one of the schools served by these vehicles, following discussions with Stagecoach.
Source: one of the schools served by these vehicles, following discussions with Stagecoach.
I was expecting Swindon to get first choice. Perhaps Swindon gets the cast off darts from GR/SD instead!
I suspect the cascades will be a little more nuanced than simply E200s replacing Darts.
When you take a look a the respective depot fleets, they don't necessarily match the PVRs particularly well.
For an uneducated starter I wouldn't be surprised to see Gloucester taking 4 E200s to get their MAN E300s off fleet (or cascaded to Bristol - lets not forget that there is now the added complication of SGBC as well).
When you take a look a the respective depot fleets, they don't necessarily match the PVRs particularly well.
For an uneducated starter I wouldn't be surprised to see Gloucester taking 4 E200s to get their MAN E300s off fleet (or cascaded to Bristol - lets not forget that there is now the added complication of SGBC as well).
I suspect SGBC is very complicated! If some of the contracts need seat belts or specify coaches then the choice will be limited and there's the belief that they're fairly low value anyway so might need renegotiating.
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