Arriva North East: Latest News & Discussion - March 2020
Arriva North East: Latest News & Discussion - March 2020
(07 Mar 2020, 9:58 pm)mb134 I think if we see investment for the X15/8 then it'd make sense to do the X14 as well - the Scanias are due for replacement soon anyway so it'd make sense to a degree. Would require 12 vehicles, 13 if there's a dedicated spare.There's nothing wrong with the E400MMCs on the X21 / X22. But if Arriva were to go with presumably E400MMCs, would it not make sense to put them on a route that would suit ZF gearboxes better with the current Voith examples being used on a more 'stop-start' type of route?
You'd then have 7553-6 for the X20.
Out of 7511/2/4-7 and 7529-33 you'd probably see the latter 5 stay at Ashington as spares for the Morpeth routes and for the 35 alongside 1579/80. The other 6 could then move to Jesmond to displace their B7s.
Currently I don't imagine there's a lot of need to replace the Blyth deckers. They're on less demanding routes than the Ashington E400s, have all had recent refurbs and will likely be kept on for the next couple of years at least.
If we're honest the X15 should have had new vehicles about 5 years ago.
In response to your X21/22 point, I believe that the MMCs are already surpassing 200k miles at 2.5 years old. Not huge milage but the buses they replaced were already dying, I'd imagine that's why we saw quick succession of investment last time around.
(07 Mar 2020, 9:58 pm)mb134 I think if we see investment for the X15/8 then it'd make sense to do the X14 as well - the Scanias are due for replacement soon anyway so it'd make sense to a degree. Would require 12 vehicles, 13 if there's a dedicated spare.There's nothing wrong with the E400MMCs on the X21 / X22. But if Arriva were to go with presumably E400MMCs, would it not make sense to put them on a route that would suit ZF gearboxes better with the current Voith examples being used on a more 'stop-start' type of route?
You'd then have 7553-6 for the X20.
Out of 7511/2/4-7 and 7529-33 you'd probably see the latter 5 stay at Ashington as spares for the Morpeth routes and for the 35 alongside 1579/80. The other 6 could then move to Jesmond to displace their B7s.
Currently I don't imagine there's a lot of need to replace the Blyth deckers. They're on less demanding routes than the Ashington E400s, have all had recent refurbs and will likely be kept on for the next couple of years at least.
If we're honest the X15 should have had new vehicles about 5 years ago.
In response to your X21/22 point, I believe that the MMCs are already surpassing 200k miles at 2.5 years old. Not huge milage but the buses they replaced were already dying, I'd imagine that's why we saw quick succession of investment last time around.
