"Prismascotland" over on Scotlandbus has posted this useful insight into the situation at First. This includes a useful pointer as to what's staying and what's going, as PS says: "those depots safe are the ones where new buses, cascades and repaints were signed off for so there are plenty of clues about what is safe and what isn't." I think it's safe to assume that Gala is amongst the depots First are keeping given the recent delivery of the new E300s, vehicles based there now starting to be repainted into the new livery and the recent Scania/Gemini swap to bolster the low-floor double-deck availability for service 62.
"The financial situation at parent FirstGroup has everything to do with it.
The first act of Tim O'Toole on taking over as CEO was to renegotiate the groups
debt to avoid becoming the next Comet or HMV.
With the debt payments agreed a review of each First UK Bus depot was conducted
looking at the ability of each depot to support group debt repayments from its
profit while at the same time leaving sufficient funds to cover the depots
capital investment. An old depot requiring replacement, a depot with an old
fleet profile or a stand alone depot with high costs/low margins was at a
disadvantage.
Where a depot was unable to facilitate debt repayment and capital investment
there are plans to merge with another depot to make more profitable, sell or
failing to secure a buyer close.
The disposal plan was signed off last year and those depots safe are the ones
where new buses, cascades and repaints were signed off for so there are plenty
of clues about what is safe and what isn't.
The disposal plan is broken into stages so there is a final set of depots that
will only have their fate finalised once the initial sales progress or not as
the case has been in some instances.
The West Coast rail set back will indeed mean a re-evaluation of strategy but
not necessarily with UK Bus."
