(20 May 2015, 8:31 pm)mb134 wrote 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.Well according to a Blyth driver, the engine bays on 7501-7506 when only 2 1/2 year old were a disgrace and they were crawling along the Coast Road on the 308. None of the E400s from 7514 onwards have had any trouble at Ashington compared to Blyth's Geminis though.
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
If GNE were to ever order E400MMCs, they'd be very well looked after and for most routes, would have a spare for every 7 or 8 purchased