This is interesting, as we were told in Bristol that we'd be getting 25 ADL E400 MMCs. I would assume from the above that we are wrong.
Where are the E200s going? Scotland as well?
It might be....
a) First are getting over 100 ADL vehicles
b) First are putting over 100 new vehicles to Scotland
c) They may not be one and the same?
Hence Bristol may still be getting its e400s?
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Some of the routes in Cornwall have narrow country lanes hence the use of small Solo's, I cannot see that a Streetlite or E200 would be the best replacement. I doubt anything new will go to Cornwall anyway!
Places like Fowey and the Roseland peninsula are not the best routes for anything too big or wide!
Perhaps the older West Country Solo's will be replaced by newer cascaded Solo's from elsewhere as Cornwall only get's cast off's most of the time as THarris123 has commented.
SouthWesterly has already said that FSW is not due anything new. What it will doubtless get is a load of cascades of varying ages.
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I was incredibly shocked about that as well. Nothing from Mercedes (I thought there would be a few Citaros) and Scania either. No coaches on the list. They solely seem to stick to ADL and Wright this year.
I wonder whether some of the Streetlites are going to be the 55*** ones? They could replace some of the midi Darts and solos.
E200s are probably going to replace most solos. The main base for the old solos are Cornwall (as with the rest of the old fleet!) and I'm personally expecting to see some of the Bath and Essex solos go down to Cornwall.
I'm not especially surprised that Optare got nothing. They had very little last year either (15 Solos and a few hybrid Versas for a specific service).
Same with coaches - not much call for them. There's only the Swansea - Cardiff Shuttle and that's allegedly going to be buses anyway. In fact, it's been a bit of a problem for First in getting rid/finding work for the ones they've had (hence why a number were parked up in Bristol for months if not years)
The industry has moved en masse to lightweight vehicles and that's why few are buying Citaros. First haven't bought many in the past anyway so the focus on Streetlites and e200 MMCs is pretty much par for the course
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