(07 May 2023, 9:20 pm)Storx wrote 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.

The 57 plates are grim now, dirty with the painted plastic panels peeling/rubbed down and a few examples leak water through the light fittings on the top deck.

I get that Arriva need to sweat the assets but they always seem to take it too far.

I'm old enough to rember the Nationals in their white undercoat (though I was just a toddler at the time in my defense). The old hand me downs from London were always grim, though at least the Geminis and ALX400s that moved up here in the past got some attention to their interiors.