Spares aren't just for breakdowns. Routine maintenance also has to be
carried out. Also, with such old buses, of low capital value, it's probably
wise to spread the usage within a larger fleet to slow the overall rate of
wear.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Colin (both of you!), maybe they do mean 3 spares per route, but that
is not actually what the press release says. Perhaps I am just being
too pedantic.

That being so, a 60% "spare" capacity for a bus route must be a World
record! Or are they just being realistically pessimistic as to the poor
maintenance (as sadly seen so often on the remaining Routemasters) that
is to be expected, and that 3 out of the 5 buses can be expected to
break down on each route every day?!

Marc.