I can't say that I've noticed either way, Tom, but I agree that the substitution seems to be happening more often these days and I will try to keep a record from now on. What I have noticed is that the orange busues are sometimes used on other routes which emanate from the Scunthorpe depot, so the substitution does not appear to be solely for servicing purposes.
Anthony, it is interesting to learn that the orange omnibuses are being used on other routes around Scunthorpe.
It is however possible that this is for maintenance purposes. There are three orange vehicles based at Scunthorpe for three diagrams, starting with the 06:05, 06:55 and 07:25 from Scunthorpe Bus Station. If a vehicle is undergoing maintenance and becomes available for service after 07:25, it is possible that it will be needed to work a diagram which comes off depot later. It is also possible that if a vehicle has come off maintenance or repair, that the depot will want to keep it close to depot in case a fault develops, hence preferring to not send it on a 350.
I also note that the orange Stagecoach fleet is intesively diagrammed, with 100% availability required Mondays - Saturdays and 33.3% at Scunthorpe and 0% at Hull on Sundays. The one orange liveried EYMS vehicle is required in service 7 days a week.
Yes, that makes sense, Tom.
If it would interest you, I will continue to keep a time & date record, whenever I can, of the livery of the FastCat buses, and of orange liveries of non-FastCat services if that would also be on interest.
As an update to this, the EYMS orange liveried Humber Fastcat branded bus is now being repainted into the corporate East Yorkshire livery. I have seen a photograph of the vehicle in the body shop at Anlaby Road bus depot, I believe it last worked on the 350 on Thursday 18th June 2020.
An article on this development is below:
https://www.stevenknightmedia.com/fleet-news-ramblings/june-27th-2020-1050-fleet-ramblings