(13 Jul 2020, 11:02 am)Michael wrote Don't i might actually be sick... that branding was horrendous, who ever thought that up, was on something!
The fact that 6941 should only be used on scholars but its out on normal routes, is annoying though, that shouldn't happen now because all the Presidents/Vykings are being withdrawn due to scholar contract losses.... can we celebrate?
Not one of the big 3 have a proper stable livery, everyone of them has at least 2 versions.... how many times has the GNE/Arriva liveries changed over the last 10 years though?
I'm not going to comment on how i feel about Arriva because it would be unfair because i never use them (think i last used Arriva in the 90's haha) and don't really know the company/routes etc to actually make a statement on them. Its fully Stagecoach around my way (with GNE about a 10-15 minute walk away), and they do a pretty good job on my route although... the occasional dart is being allocated to the route (23 - Dene Estate to Thorney Close), but we went from fully NEW E200's to a mixture of those horrendous MANviro's and ADL versions because Newcastle took some of them for contracted services!
Talking of buses, some the Gas buses are starting to sound horrendous and they're only 7 and 6 years old, which isn't good, because what are they gonna sound like by the time they get to 10 years old?
Stagecoach also have the problem, when it comes to withdrawing them, who will buy them?, there's not many bus companies in the UK which use gas buses. I do hope in the next order Stagecoach Sunderland get new buses but that's unlikely, as Newcastle has the CAZ zone coming up.
The Gas Buses, a lot of them need new spark plugs, but at £600 each SC is not keen on spending that sort of money and will literally run them as far as they can go. Not sure why these companies are so cheap. They're alright to drive, I would say good but the ADL body is just horrendous, you'd think something that is advertised as full size would have a good weight ratio but the E300 is just poor in my opinion just like every other ADL product I have driven.
The 39xx MANs are possibly the most dangerous buses I've driven and I'm not sure how they even got around to ordering so many. I wondered why the SN63s had been leaving Sunderland. Again they are a nasty bus to drive, very heavy steering and sharp braking, provided by the Voith system in operation.