(26 Dec 2023, 10:58 am)L469 YVK wrote The W*** RBB Tridents were awful on the 308 after being hammered on the 602 and to the extent that Jesmond never sent them out on the 306 on Sundays with B10BLE's or Palatines / 7445-46 used instead.

DB300's I think are okay.......but not as rapid as the E400MMC, not forgetting the DB300 is powered by a 205BHP Cummins unit whereas the E400/E400MMC is powered by a 240/250BHP Cummins unit. Got up to speed fairly quick this morning too!

The original E400 allocated (7501-06) were a bag of ***** as Arriva Blyth didn't look after their buses then contrary to Ashington's examples on the X31/X32/X33 (7507-13) which had a bit more TLC. In fact, anything that never touched the 308 or X93 out of that batch were sound.

In fairness that's just a choice of the engine they chose I guess, I'd imagine they could've had the higher BHP Cummins engine if someone wanted but no-one touched VDL vehicles because Arriva were the dealer. 

The VDL DB300's even now give a better passenger experience than the brand new MMC's which are riddled with rattles already and they've been in service just over a year.

ADL vehicles, generally, are a pile of crap imo. Sadly Wright have followed them in recent years as the Streetdeck (awful) is pretty much the replacement for the DB300. I'm still surprised there hasn't been a 2 axle Volvo Decker using the 8 litre engine found in some single deckers and the 3 axle decker they currently produce.