709 progression

After an enquiry to PCB it has been said that the Solos will not appear on Plymouth services until they have gone through a full refit and paint up into the Citybus livery. If this will be the promised new version of the livery we are yet to know. Though 709 operation sounds like it still has a little while left to run. On council supported services such as 58/9 709s will still be a common sight as the contract does not state the service needs to be run with low floor buses. I'm sure this will therefore mean Citybus will eek out the length of time the 709s are used as long as possible before replacing them on the route under new contract terms. Of course you can see why they'd want to do this as well. The 709s have always been ultra reliable along with being far cheaper to run the Solos, while still giving a good standard of service.