(07 Dec 2015, 10:26 pm)Jimmi wrote Haven't them three EcoCity's had reliability problems ever since we got them? For buses of that age I am slightly concerned by how many times I have seen those three at the side of the road broken down so I am starting to become less trusting in them which for me is a bad thing as knowing my luck before long I am probably get one of them three back from Sunderland/Peterlee one day and get stuck waiting an hour for the next one or wait 30 minutes and take a lengthy detour on the 21A to Stockton then to Darlington to reach home. The other EcoCity's don't seem so bad, 4811 is nearly always on the 21/X21 and stays there all day. The problem is, if you take them EcoCity's off the 21/X21, where would you put them at Darlington? 8/8A maybe.
X75/X76, by the time they are MAX'd they will be pretty much 11 years old although most MAX referbs are just a case of paint the exterior, paint the handrails, whack in some WiFi and re-trim the seats with e-leather so shouldn't cost too much. The Omnicity's now seem down on power and some of them just sound awful, 4649 is my least personal favourite.
Wonder if the side destination screens on at least one of Darlington's MAX Omnicity's will ever get fixed, been like that for, too long and not something Arriva should be ignoring as in a few weeks time this will make the bus non DDA compliant.
DDA has quite a big loophole regarding destination screens. The DDA states that the bus must be fitted with a destination screen (side and rear) capable of showing a certain amount of characters at a certain size. It could be argued in a court that it doesn't state whether the destination screen has to be working, as it only states that it should be capable - have to have quite a good lawyer to argue it though.