(20 May 2015, 8:15 pm)DaveyBowyer wrote As long as Ashington look after them and don't run them into the ground like what Blyth and Redcar did with some of the 57 plate examples, then they'll see a good few years.
Without wishing for this to turn into an ANE string of posts, I'd argue that Ashington seem more competent than Blyth when it comes to looking after vehicles. All the Gemini's I was on at Easter were awful, even compared to the 57 reg Enviros.
Let's not forget that up until 2012(ish), Ashington had an Olympian dominated fleet, complimented by B10BLE'S, and although the buses were obviously better vehicles, to look after a fleet that age must take some doing, especially to operate on the routes they operated on. Blyth meanwhile had brand new VDL Geminis, I'd like to see performance figures from early 2012 to see the difference