(03 Sep 2021, 1:19 am)Washingtonian wrote I understand what you are saying about the specification of a bus matching the expectations of a route and getting what's advertised and I never said anything to suggest otherwise! However, some people seem to be a bit obsessed with saying "this service needs new buses because it's currently using buses that are 10 or 11 years old etc". And I'm sure people on here have said stuff like the Versas need withdrawing because the are 09 plates. That's just ridculous! Those buses have plenty of life in them and cost a lot of money to buy in the first place so theres nothing wrong at all with them being in service for around 20 years or so. Of course every bus company needs to upgrade it's vehicles every so often, but not as often as some people suggest.I don't think I was disagreeing with you (was I? I can't remember).
Not trying to be funny here but going off your second point most GNE buses have high backed seats, WiFi, USB ports etc. Even the older buses have had upgrades to accomodate such things, such as the Versas that have gone onto the Sunderland District Berries.! So what does the age matter and why are people so obsessed whether a bus is new or not? Go North East have always looked after their fleet very well with regular repainting (as we all know!), regular refurbishments and regular maintainence etc. As well as the stuff you already mentioned, as long as the buses provided are clean, tidy, smart, well maintained, safe, warm and comfortable what does the bus's age matter? Buses that do tend to look untidy in the fleet tend to be the ones they are planning on withdrawing very soon and rarely turn up on the major routes from what I can see.
As for your point about the Olympians, some of them were still in service with the likes of Refearn Travel and Herbert's travel as recently as 2018 so they must be solid!
As I've said before, if they upgrade an Omnidekka to X-lines spec, I'd have absolutely no issues with them running it on the X21.
Would I be happy if they complete replaced the 67 plate B5s with 15+ year old Omnidekkas?
Definitely not, but at least they'd be keeping to the specification promised!
Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk