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That's a good swop

For Yorkshire maybe, certainly not for Leicester.

Hasn't First Leicester also gone back to diesel deckers on the BHX5 Spon End - Rugby Gateway?

Should never really have been electric given the electrics were purchased with Zebra funding for services in Leicester and the route doesn't go anywhere near Leicester. Was only operated with Electrics for a short period whilst Diesels that were appropriate for the route were unavailable.

100% agree with you, and like I said previously I like the E400EVs on the X1. But it's best for the company if they remove these buses of this route for the time being. It's not because I dislike them or enthusiast hate electric buses, but from a passenger perspective it's reducing reliability, considering these buses have to push 40 for 11 miles straight for 4-6 journeys, plus the Meriden hill towards the A45 Bridge, the batteries must be being pushed significantly to the point these need to be changed every few months or so

The X1 will always have seen a higher than typical number of failures whatever vehicles are operating it due to the nature of the route. Unless there is evidence that the electrics are breaking down significantly more frequently than the diesel vehicles used to on the same route it is basically irrelevant that they may be breaking down more frequently on that route compared to others.

Just because a bus hasn't been out for a few weeks doesn't necessarily mean it's withdrawn

In normal circumstances that is certainly true but in the case of a last example of a batch that are confirmed as being withdrawn upon MOT expiry or major faults occurring the likelihood of a significant period off the road meaning withdrawal is much higher.

Looks like 4761 may well be withdrawn having not been out for a few weeks. As much as I am glad to see the back of this batch as they were quite clearly life expired its a shame nothing was done to mark their departure given they were a rare batch that worked in Leicester for their entire life (Of the current deckers only 5 of those older than 2 years were new to Leicester).

4760 has not been used this month and the MOT expires on the 13th, wonder if that's the end for it

It also appears to have broken down the last time it was used so almost certainly the end as there's no point in repairing it for less than a week of use.

I think it's also important to remember that university adverts are slightly different to most localised adverts in that it is far from unusual for universities to purposely place adverts on buses in areas other than which they are based due to the fact most students come from outside the immediate area. I believe at least Sheffield Hallam and Northampton universities currently have adverts on buses in Leicester so to the average person an advert for a university does not stand out in the same way that other localised adverts for the wrong area would.

Looks like 4201 has gone to Arriva Beds and Bucks

Which is completely illogical whilst 4760 and 4761 which should have been withdrawn months ago continue to be required and saloons continue to cover decker diagrams on an almost daily basis due to an ongoing shortage of deckers.
Also makes absolutely no sense to have an avoidable micro fleet of one within the depot so really 4202 should be swapped with an enviro at Derby.

Thought we were getting away from all this silliness running multiple buses over the same route from different companies, thought bus partnerships were the way forward like the one in Leicester

Bus partnerships are only any good if they apply to the whole of the area and not just within an arbitrarily drawn part of an area which hasn't been updated in several decades and which does not account for a large chunk of the extended urban area in which many journeys originate (as in Leicester where some passengers on the affected routes now have to buy two tickets to cover their journeys where the connecting leg is on the operator that has withdrawn its service given there is no combined ticketing outside of the outdated, illogical and unfair boundary which is a substantially different distance from the city centre depending on which direction you are heading).

Do you know what happened to cause the fire to start then?

An investigation does imply blame or fault.
The relatively unusual circumstances prior to the fire in which the vehicle had been unexpectedly withdrawn from service but allowed to return to the depot under its own steam simply means that there are a few more questions to be answered than the freak event in service fires that (whilst rare) are the more regular occurrence.
If it was found that the fire was unrelated to the reason for the vehicle being removed from service the public would be reassured that their safety is being taken seriously and if any other outcome was found the necessary steps could be put in place to avoid a reoccurrence.

Looks like it had been on the TZ2 to Twycross Zoo, possibly on the way back to Barwell depot

The vehicle from the TZ2 typically goes straight into Leicester in order to operate the TZ1 without going anywhere near the depot. With this in mind it would suggest that there was already a known fault with the vehicle but that it was incorrectly decided that it would be safe to drive the vehicle out of service back to the depot.
With this in mind I would assume there will be a full external investigation from the transport commissioner as to whether Arriva management have recklessly put a member of staff and other road users at risk of serious injury in order to save a few quid on a tow truck and that whether the current policies and procedures are adequate at minimising the risks to the public.

Yes, that's why I was a bit surprised at the suggestion that Stagecoach was building up for WM franchises. I don't know of a date for franchises to be announced/released - what are they?
Surely, Stagecoach just order a large quantity of new buses for the whole of the UK and then later allocate as necessary ?

I suspect there's a bit more to it than just plucking a number out of thin air and waiting until they arrive before deciding where to allocate them but yes I can't imagine the allocations are 100% fixed at this stage (although for the electrics they may well be more fixed to depots than historically due to the high proportion of buses receiving funding from various schemes that dictate where they'll operate).

While not arguing that what happened was customer-friendly, the decision was presumably made for a good reason. Are we sure there was no problem with the vehicle?

By the time it arrived at Fosse Park, the 1740 Leicester - Narborough was running 17 minutes late, which could potentially have meant the driver might be close to exceeding his hours if he continued to Narborough then back to depot, especially if there were any further delays on his empty trip. The 1800 Leicester - Narborough was less than 5 minutes behind the 1740 at Fosse Park so, apart from having to change buses, the impact on passengers would have been minor.

If 17 minutes is enough of a delay to put a driver at risk of exceeding their hours that's extremely poor planning and doesn't allow sufficient contingency for anything but the most minor of unexpected occurrences. Whilst everyone would prefer a consistently on time service the reality is that delays of at least 30 minutes should be accommodated for when planning driver rotas as it is far from uncommon for things to happen that cause this level of delay.

The driver shortage is over so it's time to get rid of boards that require buses running as little as 15 minutes late from terminating early on the last run of the day in order to get back to the depot within driver hours. Or at least I assume it's poor diagramming pushing hours to the limit rather than a lazy driver that caused the 17:40 50 to Narborough to terminate at Fosse Park due to the driver needing to get back to the depot on time.

And in completely expected news 8000 (and 2 other electrics have done peak time boards on the 84) has spent the day on the 31 whilst 2 diesel e400MMCs were on the 50. If the diagrammer cannot tell the difference between blue and green buses something is going drastically wrong,