(05 Oct 2021, 10:04 am)Storx wrote Yeah could be true, I just knew Arriva bid for the 51 as part of the North Tyneside green fund so assumed some of them got done as part of it - https://my.northtyneside.gov.uk/sites/de...port_0.pdf

Mind nevermind whether things are Euro 6 at Jesmond it'd be interesting to know what's supposed to be allocated to what as it's a right mess lately; Pulsars on the 55, Streetlites on the 306, Solos and Enviro's on the 52/53/54; Pulsars on the 306 and so on and it's been the same for weeks now.

I think part of the problem with Arriva's fleet is that they have too many Solo's for their present operation. And so you end up with the situation at Jesmond where there's a mixture of everything on all services because they need to try and allocate the Solo's to the boards with the fewest passengers. We've seen Blyth essentially remove it's mini-bus fleet by nabbing Pulsars which have been made spare elsewhere due to Covid reductions, but the likes of Durham and Newcastle have too many smaller vehicles which are then having to be used on services which need higher capacity.

Hopefully when it gets to the point in a few years time where a vast wave of the fleet is due for replacement, that a smaller amount of minibuses are purchased to fulfil the needs primarily at Darlington and then the odd few services elsewhere (95 at Whitby, 46/51/55/553 at Jesmond, 57/57A at Ashington and 58 at Blyth). And then the rest of the Solo's replaced by larger vehicles so that they don't have to be allocated to frontline services such as the 52/53/54 for example and can be taken out of Durham's fleet allowing the 56/57/57A/58 and 49/49A to be operated with more appropriately sized vehicles.