05 Jan 2016, 8:17 pm
#148
(05 Jan 2016, 7:53 pm)BusLoverMum They're ancient, though. No amount of maintenance can keep a V reg bus reliable enough to make several 3 hour round trips a day, no matter how good a bus it used to be. I'm a big fan of the Presidents as they can offer a nice ride but they're past their best, they're largely beginning to fail permanently and some of them even leak when it rains.
I doubt if the streetdecks will ever see their 16th birthdays in active service and I do think they are somewhat underpowered for rural routes, but they meet with current efficiency and emissions standards without costing as much as some other buses do. I can understand why GNE have bought them. I'll just not sit at the back downstairs, so I don't get to cringe at the engine on the A167.
Agree with this statement but I can't see the Streetdecks lasting in the long term as you've said. I think that Go Ahead do have a good relationship with Wrightbus though and this perhaps heavily influenced their decision to buy the Streetdeck. Bar the SPDs, MPDs and Lolynes / Presidents, GNE have never had such a working relationship with ADL and GNE haven't purchased any Scania products since 2006 / 2007.
I do think that if the demand is there in the near future, Wrightbus could end up offering a double deck heavyweight chassis / body combination again (either integral with Cummins 6.7 Engine as used in ADL E400 / E400MMC or in conjunction with Volvo offering the 7.7 litre unit) but bar ADL offering a Scania heavyweight chassis in combinated with the E400 / E400MMC bodywork , I think the market forces at Wrightbus are geared towards lightweight units. I don't think that the B8RLE on a Wright body will last long at all TBH.
And although on paper the Cummins 6.7 unit is a fairly decent engine, some of Arriva's examples of DB300s have become sluggish and tired already but whether that could just be down to the use of Voith Gearboxes rather than ZF or poor setup by Wrightbus, who knows?
Merc Engines are pretty good in terms of reliability as proven by the Citaros and I don't think that the OM934 will have any problems reliability wise despite it being a bit slow in a double decker. The Streetdeck might even manage to last 16 years despite it's characteristics for all we know yet.
