(10 Oct 2022, 8:54 pm)peter wrote  The 57/57A, while I appreciate there may be reliability issues with the Solo's there, you're gonna get reliability issues with the Solo's anywhere. Darlington has a large Solo fleet and there's nothing else for the E200's made surplus at Jesmond to go on. It makes sense to upgrade the Darlo locals and keep the MMC's together. Plus Ashington has just gotten all the double deckers so not like it's deprived of investment.

The main issue with the Solo reliability on the 57 is the length and frequency of the service though. Most of the Darlington minibus routes are reasonably frequent as far as I can remember, and are reasonably close to base should an issue develop. The 57 goes approximately 20 miles away from it's depot, and if there's an issue at the southern end the next run is definitely not running - so you're then leaving folk with a 2 hour gap in the service. 

I don't disagree with Darlington needing theirs replaced, I just question the logic of returning life expired vehicles to a route that they were struggling to operate reliably.