(05 Jun 2015, 9:31 pm)South Tyne Lad wrote I like Northern156s idea I think that idea would work best with sapphire.
The thing is isn't the 85/685 tendered by Northumberland county council? im sure I heard that somewhere.
If they are then all this upgrading to sapphire and express services would all have to be run commercially and I don't think Arriva would do that.
the best types of buses for this route would be
Maybe single deckers would be Volvo B8RLE MCV or wright body Scania irazar i3
and double deckers Scania Enviro 400MMC
as this route is very rural and demanding these would be the best but you know Arriva, probably just buy some streetlites that will be torn to pieces in 2 years!!
The route definitely isn't tendered by Northumberland, the 85/685 is operated on a commercial basis, as is the 185.
I agree, knowing Arriva they would just stick Streetlites on there. But the service definitely doesn't justify double deckers, it's quite often that the service carries no more than double figures between Newcastle and Hexham, possibly because of competition by GNE on the Tynedalexpress, which seems to be doing extremely well at the minute.