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Which depot has the oldest fleet?

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Redmike

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I was wondering which bus depot has the oldest average fleet age? For Stagecoach I wonder if any depot has an older fleet than Barrow, where most of the fleet is 54 reg Solos.
 
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hst43102

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Stagecoach in Kettering has to be right up there. Except for the X4 fleet of 68-reg MMC's, most of the fleet are 53/54/06 Darts, 04/06 Tridents and a handful of unreliable 58/09 MANs.
 

David Goddard

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Based on the UK-Buses website stagecoach fleetlist:
*Cumbria has seven 51 plate Solo M850s. Five at Carlisle and two more at Kendal.
*East Midlands has three 02 plate ALX400 Tridents. Two at Mansfield and one at Gainsborough
*South East has three 52 plate ALX400 Tridents at Herne Bay, and South has one at Portsmouth.
 

Strathclyder

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First Glasgow's Caledonia. From a sole 02-reg President-bodied Trident through a few late 2002/early 2003-vintage Caetano-bodied Dart SLFs, 5 53-reg ALX400-bodied Tridents, various 53/54/07/57/58/09 Geminis to 19-reg E400MMCs/Cities and a pair of 69-reg BYD E200MMCs.
 

CBlue

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First Glasgow's Caledonia. From a sole 02-reg President-bodied Trident through a few late 2002/early 2003-vintage Caetano-bodied Dart SLFs, 5 53-reg ALX400-bodied Tridents, various 53/54/07/57/58/09 Geminis to 19-reg E400MMCs/Cities and a pair of 69-reg BYD E200MMCs.
Some of the Eastern Counties and Essex depots must be in with a shout. Shedloads of knackered early 2000s ex London Tridents / B7s seemed to be the order of the day for the most part.
 

Strathclyder

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Some of the Eastern Counties and Essex depots must be in with a shout. Shedloads of knackered early 2000s ex London Tridents / B7s seemed to be the order of the day for the most part.
The Eastern Counties B7s/Tridents on the whole seem to be fairly tidy for their age/astronomical mileage, at least from what I've seen gleaming from online photographic evidence (I should note that I am not familar with either of these divisions, so am willing to be further informed/corrected if need be); the relatively flat topography of the area no doubt helps with mechanical health. As for Essex, Hadleigh depot has always seemed to the leader in terms of vehicle upkeep, their ALX400 Tridents (same batch as the Glasgow examples cited above) always seemed to be expectionally tidy.
 

cnjb8

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Based on the UK-Buses website stagecoach fleetlist:
*Cumbria has seven 51 plate Solo M850s. Five at Carlisle and two more at Kendal.
*East Midlands has three 02 plate ALX400 Tridents. Two at Mansfield and one at Gainsborough
*South East has three 52 plate ALX400 Tridents at Herne Bay, and South has one at Portsmouth.
Maybe correct but I wouldn't trust UK Buses fleetlists as far as I can throw them
 

TheGrandWazoo

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Some of the Eastern Counties and Essex depots must be in with a shout. Shedloads of knackered early 2000s ex London Tridents / B7s seemed to be the order of the day for the most part.

First Ipswich has a rather aged fleet dominated by low height ALX that can fit into the depot with the newest being some ex Scottish 2013 e300s.

First’s Colchester is quite mature with some 65 plate Streetlites, some more 2013 e300s, and a lot of 2005 vintage Volvos
 

CBlue

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The Eastern Counties B7s/Tridents on the whole seem to be fairly tidy for their age/astronomical mileage, at least from what I've seen gleaming from online photographic evidence (I should note that I am not familar with either of these divisions, so am willing to be further informed/corrected if need be); the relatively flat topography of the area no doubt helps with mechanical health. As for Essex, Hadleigh depot has always seemed to the leader in terms of vehicle upkeep, their ALX400 Tridents (same batch as the Glasgow examples cited above) always seemed to be expectionally tidy.

Hadleigh is definitely a leader, just a shame the rest of the depots can't seem to keep to the same standard. Basildon and Colchester both used to be fairly bad but the crowning depot for poor presentation in Essex is definitely Chelmsford. I was impressed in some respects how virtually brand new fleets of vehicles seemed to become scruffy almost overnight!

Eastern Counties used to be far worse out of Lowestoft and Ipswich but I think they've been trying to up their game recently - definitely not the days of "Sheds r us" which was their nickname 15 or so years ago.
 

Strathclyder

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Hadleigh is definitely a leader, just a shame the rest of the depots can't seem to keep to the same standard. Basildon and Colchester both used to be fairly bad but the crowning depot for poor presentation in Essex is definitely Chelmsford. I was impressed in some respects how virtually brand new fleets of vehicles seemed to become scruffy almost overnight!

Eastern Counties used to be far worse out of Lowestoft and Ipswich but I think they've been trying to up their game recently - definitely not the days of "Sheds r us" which was their nickname 15 or so years ago.
Yeah, Hadleigh is certainly the leader as far as Essex is concerned, at least in terms of vehicle upkeep/presentation. A pity the others in that division lag behind as much as they do.

Eastern Counties seems to have been making a real turnaround in the vehicle presentation department; most of the remaining Presidents they have seem to be kept reasonably tidy externally (Again, not a division I'm familar with, so can only go off of online photographic evidence).
 

83G/84D

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How about some of the Centrebus depots or until fairly recently Diamond Bus West Midlands. Both fleets have some rather elderly vehicles.
 

Wyrleybart

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National Express West Midlands (NXWM) are still using 03 plate Tridents and Geminis in the Birmingham / West Midlands area.
 
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Wyrleybart

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Nevermind 03, they still use 51/02/52 plates in regular service!

I wasn't going to go that far after quite a cull of the Tridents in the last couple of months. They have had a clearout from Pensnett I believe. Not sure if National Express West Midlands (NXWM) have started disposing of the 03 plate Geminis but I saw a Green bus Gemini today - a company which took some of the old Plaxton Presidents from NXWM. I know they do a lot of school and college work with their fleet.
 
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hst43102

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I wasn't going to go that far after quite a cull of the Tridents in the last couple of months. They have had a clearout from Pensnett I believe. Not sure if National Express West Midlands (NXWM) have started disposing of the 03 plate Geminis but I saw a Green bus Gemini today - a company which took some of the old Plaxton Presidents from NXWM. I know they do a lot of school and college work with their fleet.
No Gemini have been disposed of yet AFAIK. The Green Bus ones are ex Lothian.
 

WM Bus

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woodhouse122

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First Huddersfield and Halifax have a pretty old fleet ,with 51 plate ALX400s and 54 plate Volvo B7TLs still in traffic
 

trentside

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Does First Cymru’s depot at Haverfordwest still mostly operate 53/55 plate Darts?
 

Typhoon

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Based on the UK-Buses website stagecoach fleetlist:
*South East has three 52 plate ALX400 Tridents at Herne Bay, and South has one at Portsmouth.
I cannot vouch for all of the other 3 still being in service but 17582 (not mentioned) was in service on 30th April when it successfully transported me to Canterbury on the 4 so almost certainly saw all-day service. One other vehicle (17587, I think) was laying over at Canterbury. Seeing two together is quite unusual. With schools operating and limits on the number of passengers still being in place, they still perform a useful role (they are also handy for wheelchair users).
Having said that, the vast majority of the work is performed by double deckers less than 12 years old so the average age is not likely to be among the highest.

EDIT: 06th May 17590 was on the 5.
 
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Strathclyder

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Thanks a lot, I wasn't aware of those. No Gemini have been withdrawn due to age, then?
The first production Geminis (Y581 UGC & Y102 TGH; Arriva's 4200 & 4201 & both new July 2001 as Arriva London North's VLW1/2) haven't seen use for a quite a while. Don't know if either have been disposed of (as of May 2021), but the latest image(s) I can find on Flickr of 4200 date from July 2018. Meanwhile, the latest Flickr image of 4201 has it at the back of Chester depot last September missing it's rear upper deck window (linked image from the Cymru Coastliner Flickr collection), so I think it's fair to assume it has been withdrawn from active service.

 
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hst43102

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The first production Geminis (Y581 UGC & Y102 TGH; Arriva's 4200 & 4201 & both new July 2001 as Arriva London North's VLW1/2) haven't seen use for a quite a while. Don't know if either have been disposed of (as of May 2021), but the latest image(s) I can find on Flickr of 4200 date from July 2018. Meanwhile, the latest Flickr image of 4201 has it at the back of Chester depot last September missing it's rear upper deck window (linked image from the Cymru Coastliner Flickr collection), so I think it's fair to assume it has been withdrawn from active service.

Sorry, didn't clarify that one properly! I meant no NXWM Gemini have been withdrawn due to age. Lots of the early batches of London B7TLs and DB250s have been scrapped.
 

Strathclyder

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Sorry, didn't clarify that one properly! I meant no NXWM Gemini have been withdrawn due to age. Lots of the early batches of London B7TLs and DB250s have been scrapped.
Ah I see. No worries; happens to the best of us. :)
 

kez19

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This might be off topic but may as well ask, why is it that some buses are withdrawn from other areas but yet still in service elsewhere?

Just an example: Plaxton President and above mentioned the Darts? Is there a reason why that is?

I was going to do a thread but felt what I might be asking maybe stupid.
 
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