(05 Sep 2017, 5:07 pm)Dan wrote  Go North East could have opted for a full-diesel Volvo B9TL for the Angel too, but decided instead to go for the more environmentally-friendly option with better fuel efficiency and a less powerful engine, on the basis that they were being allocated to a route which quite frankly doesn't need a 9-litre engine.

Plus - at the time - there wasn't such a big focus on low-carbon emission buses. There is now, and a bus being LCEB-certified (and the benefits that come with this, such as extra BSOG) is one of the biggest things which makes the business case stack up for new vehicles.

The cynic in me feels that GNE went with the hybrid purely due to the cash incentives as opposed to any form of rational thinking but hey ho 

The point on low carbon is a great one, it's inevitable Newcastle will introduce some form of clean air zone with Newcastle CC being so rabidly anti-car and it makes sense to start adapting to that now. (Sure there'll be some canny publicly funded financial incentives thrown the way of small struggling independents like Stagecoach, DB and lil old GNE  )