(13 Jan 2016, 7:53 am)mb134 wrote Think Arriva should have trialled one of 7412-5 on the X20 BEFORE they MAX'd them... Would be logical wouldn't it?

Problem there is to have done that, you would have had to trial it still with duel door layout for London and it would be rather confusing having a red liveried bus turning up. About the only only other things that you could have done is loaned 7410/7411 to Ashington to see how they coped and then refurbish them but that would have meant it would be more for them being off the road and it seems like if a bus is not used in a while it can cause problems (eg. Darlington's ex demonstrator EcoCitys suffer from their lack of usage before Arriva bought them). Another thing would be to have loaned one of the examples refurbished to standard specification which went to other Arriva divisions.