I'm not really seeing the issue with Go North West and their fleet. As with all the tranches, and T3 will be no different, they will have submitted a price and a quality response, and will be bound by certain performance indicators (as already mentioned) and obligations on fleet age. Having a balanced fleet profile makes a lot of sense, and whilst age is one consideration, the actual presentation of said fleet (internally and externally) is the more pressing concern.
You don't understand the marketing mix if you think that it's confined to a flashy livery. A flash image won't help a fundamentally poor product, and a good product won't be as successful if you act as demurely as a Victorian lady.
Coming back to the topic in hand, there are some strong industry rumours sweeping round that there will be a significant new player operating a substantial part of T3. Don't want to say much more as it is conjecture, and I'm always loath to add to the rumour mill.
Guess we'll just have to wait and see who gets what.
As an aside, were First to win some of the smaller franchises (as was mooted earlier on this thread), you could have the situation where they've finally offloaded the Oldham depot that they'd tried to sell when flogging Queens Road and Bolton, and almost have as many vehicles albeit elsewhere in the conurbation.