I don't get Arriva's fleet policy whatsoever. They just hoy on what they want on any given route with no consistency, poor fleet buying decisions, several London cascades and cascaded high floor vehicles from Yorkshire. Arriva have dug themselves a grave thanks to their ridiculous fleet buying policy of buying on the cheap and not thinking about the long run. They don't see the implications of buying cheap buses that are wholly not suited to the purpose that Arriva would want. One example is the E400 purchases and the VDL DB300 Gemini 2 purchases. Both buses come with the same Cummins Engine that is only designed for use in Towns and Cities. Now Arriva could've shelled out a bit more with regards to the Wrightbus orders and purchased the Volvo B9TL chassis instead. If they had've done that instead if buying the VDL chassis with the Cummins Engine, they would now have a very strong fleet across the Blyth and Ashington depots that would give a good 7 to 10 years of reliability and peformance to Arriva. But did they think about that? No, they just buy the cheapest of the lot and run them into the ground. If GNE had've bought the VDL Gemini instead of the B9TL Gemini for the TEN, TTX and Red Arrows, they'd be constantly be VOR and after just a few years, they would require serious maintenance dueto them being used for the wrong purpose. What is Arriva going to do in years to come when the 9 litre Lowlanders have seen better days? The only option they'll have is to buy average Scania E400's that don't quite match up to the standards of the Volvo B9TL.