What we've been told is that not only is the Park and Ride getting new buses, but the service is being expanded and will need five rather than three buses. But like all things it's probably best to wait and see what actually does happen!

In fairness the DDs currently on the P&R (and I know because I used the service during the summer quite a bit) are spotless inside, and apart from DD33, which didn't seem as strong as the other two, they are in great mechanical order. The DDs on the P&R are ideal for the service to be truthful, all they need really is a decent repaint on the outside as they have gotten fairly grubby and they would be able for the P&R for many more years.

Cork is more than entitled to all the new deckers though, they have been waiting long enough and Broadstone robbed four of them last time so they'd better not rob Cork again. The DDs in Broadstone don't have hills to deal with so they are fine for Broadstone's needs. The DDs in Galway are fine too as the 9 doesn't have hills, though to be fair the 9 has gone from 08 VWLs to a mix of 08 VWLs and 02 DDs, so it is very understandable that they might want some brand new deckers to make up for losing some 08 buses in lieu of 02s.

As regards the refurbished buses, I would say that some of the 00 VWLs will be refurbished (quite a few of them have already been extensively refurbished over the past 18 months), because there will not be enough buses to replace the 99 and 00 VWLs, MCs and DPCs left, if these buses are replaced on a one for one basis then there will still be at least nine and possibly 11 (if we assume the P&R is getting two extra buses) buses left, and with a bit of luck they will hold onto some of the 00 VWLs, as they are the best of that lot.

Don't forget that VWL149-157 are still in the old livery (i.e. nine of them), and I would imagine that they are counting these as well in the number of buses that are going to be refurbished.

If the DDs are replaced by some new deckers (which is what is expected to happen) then these will also be refurbished.

So I would imagine that the refurbished buses will be DD31-33, VWL149-157 and some 00 VWLs.