(16 Sep 2018, 10:09 pm)L469 YVK On that note, Reading Buses took on some Greenline work and they trialed the BCI Excellence (double decker). Wonder if one might appear as a demo up here at some point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoN6A8mJUc4
(video not mine)
It's a common misconception amongst enthusiasts that an MD of a bus company would be so heavily involved in choosing a vehicle type to invest in. I don't think this is really commonplace at all, as the company pays a lot of money for an engineering lead to make those kind of decisions.
Reading Buses' fleet isn't really standardised at all and generally speaking is a bit of a mish-mash of whatever took their fancy at the time. The order for StreetDecks on the orange routes was only to bite back at ADL who weren't willing to change their vehicle specification at the time to meet Reading's needs (this order to Wrights kicked ADL up the rear-end which subsequently led to these changes being made), and in my opinion the more recent order for MetroDeckers for the Greenline services is more of a statement of being the first to buy that vehicle type. I don't think there's any room for that at Go North East.
Reading have actually ordered two of those BCIs for peak-time journeys on the purple 17, which are due to be delivered next year. They wanted to buy tri-axle dual-door buses for the purple 17 but no manufacturer would do it. However, it's my understanding that Lothian Buses have placed an order recently for tri-axle Volvo B8TLs on ADL Enviro500 bodywork, which could well see a step-shift in Reading Buses' loyalty to Scania.
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