(07 May 2023, 8:25 pm)solsburian wrote Yeah I suppose the 57 plate Envoros were rattely when new but I seem to recall their refurbishment did help matters.

IMHO you can't really fault the Geminis, they have served us well, but they are now starting to show their age, with some of them squeaking, leacking water at the back and the corrosion around the windows. Mind you if they had more TLC form Blyth depot I'm sure they would be in a much better state.

The Cityzens were a disgrace frpm around 2000 onwards, and now I'm showing my age!

Must admit I haven't been on them for awhile dodged them so far.

Yeah agreed with the Gemini's, to be fair they should've probably been retired to something easier than the Blyth Expresses by now but it's Arriva and they're idea of retiring buses is to use buses that have been on local town routes all their life to a route over 20 mile long, replace them because they're unreliable then repeat it all over again.

Ha don't worry I can remember when I was kid looking forward to them (preferred the L113's with the 4 seats at front mind) over the bench Olympians which quite often turned up and were grim with ex London brown moquette which belonged in Beamish then nevermind now.