(11 Sep 2024, 4:59 pm)Mike_98 wrote Are we certain that Arriva ain't withdrawing 7401. I heard rumors that they were fixing it and it was going to go out in service. Also heard a rumor that it was going to Yorkshire to get a Axle Repair. It has still been sat in pieces at Redcar Depot since the time it has been out of service which is well over a year.

I know covid happened, but why did Arriva not buy new for the X93/X94 when ordering for the X14/X15/X18 (and extras for the X21/X22) and either move these to 'spare / summer' roles......or even with Euro 6 mods allocated them to something like the X20? They would've only been 7 year old and they would've only had 6 days per week on the road if kept off on Sundays given that the X20 doesn't run on Sundays.

Wonder if Arriva will be banking on PVR reductions when the 'line' opens with some 72 plate E400MMC's moving from Ashington to Whitby / Redcar.

To be fair, they haven't done too badly though for 9 year old vehicles, arguably used on a tougher route than GNE's X9/X10 when 6043-48 were allocated and only lasted 5 years before being moved onto the 10/10A/10B then the 47.

Thinking about this too......7401-06 have done almost as well as the M3** FTY Volvo Olympians, given that they did the 501/505/518 and X31/X32/X33 for almost 10 year (2001-2010/11) before being withdrawn. Before that, they only did the 602, 308 and for any that fluttered around Jesmond, the 306 & 356.