First Manchester

[james]

RE: First Manchester

(23/05/2014 16:28)Dentonian Wrote:  As I understand the situation; there are no Streetlites at Queens. They are purely using B9s. I would also guess that their involvement on the 41 will finish on June 9th as First have registered some early morning retimings from that date, and were insistent on the date despite it not being an official TFGM Change Date. That suggests they wanted to schedule them in with the "University Term" shorts being withdrawn, thus logically Queens drivers no longer needed.

As regards Pennine (sorry, Pioneer - not quite sure how Ashton lay claims to being the birthplace of the Co-op, nor why they would want to - lol; the Streetlite order was always 16 buses (47466-81), albeit there still seem to be some yet to enter service (47469/70/3?). Whether First or Stagecoach, or indeed GMT/GMB, Tameside has always had high average vehicle ages, and I think these Streetlites are the first genuinely new buses a First group company has put into the borough. The closest previously was when 6-8 nearly new Darts were allocated there when the original Pennine Blue was acquired and managed by PMT.....almost 20 years ago!

just exactly how does pr lay claim to be a part of the birthplace of coop? the old pioneer (rochdale) was in the birthtown i.e rochdale, so where has this idea come from??
indeed these are the first brand new spec buses since 1994 as i went to pick them up with my uncle from marshall in cambridge (yes brand new not nearly new) 469/470 are in service and have been for at least 3 weeks (not sure on 473 off top of head)
with the 16 (as you say it was) originally it was just 10 47469-478 then 14 466-479 and due to extra on certain routes became 17 i.e the buses to qs . unless you have information to counter and can prove via a source please do not speculate on orders as my uncle is the dm and i work alongside him to help my uncle on kpi`s as / when necc.