(04 Sep 2015, 6:29 pm)Dan wrote Worth mentioning that I believe the Scania L94s on the Tynedalexpress are limited to 58 or 59mph, whereas Streetlites are limited to 50mph. The allocation of Streetlites to service X85 would make the timetable completely unachievable, and therefore, I can't see this vehicle type as a likely choice for investment.
This is one issue with buses being limited to small speeds on routes like these, who knows what GNE are going to do in future for buying buses for routes such as the X84/X85 and also the likes of X7, X9/X10 as having buses that can only achieve 50mph is not really ideal. One way of getting round timetables that are currently unachievable with buses limited to 50mph would be to alter timetables to have more running time but by the time you add an extra bus to the PVR of a service which would mean more drivers would be needed it might actually prove to be cheaper to buy buses with lower fuel efficiency.