(26 Jun 2015, 10:04 pm)RGR756V wrote I've had experience of E400s from my time at Arriva and I wasn't impressed.....the latest batch that have arrived at Darlington for Arriva alledgedly are keeping the ADL service man (who lives down the road from me) very busy. Admittedly they aren't MMCs but are they really going to be that different?
There is a video of SN64CTU on YouTube working the 36 for Transdev Harrogate and it does seem to trot along at a canny pace. The B5 we had last year was very ponderous, though I think it was set up for Lothian. Arriva are currently having issues with their Daimler engined Streetlites on the X1 and that does not fill me with confidence either!
I know people are saying they should transfer B9s from the Red Arrows to Pronto and I am inclined to agree, but there is going to be a time that B9s will be life expired and it makes sense to bite the bullet now and find out which of these new generation of small engined deckers will work on the X21
Which batch(es) did you have experience with at Arriva?
Doesn't sound too good with regard to the Darlington E400's, wonder if it's just that batch, I know I don't see every run, but Ashington's 14-plates hardly ever seem to be off the road...
I seem to recall the B5 being quite underpowered(?), something about Lothian not ordering it for the route they trialled it on because it was finding it hard to keep to time?
I was thinking about your last point yesterday actually, will a time come when operators have to ask a manufacturer to make a double deck with a large engine again, GNE need them for the TTX, and I'm sure there are a couple of other routes, I can't see Arriva wanting to go back to small engines on the X93 after the success of the B9's.
Out of interest, does anyone know why Volvo are putting an 8 litre into their new single decker, but only a 5 into the double, surely it should be the other way around?