(26 Oct 2024, 8:33 am)Storx wrote In fairness, I don't think they are. Barely anyone uses them on interurban work as they're not good vehicles imo. The only route I can think of, off the top of my head was the Brighton Coaster service and they've been replaced already by surprise surprise E400MMC's already.I agree with the X21, but the 21 and 308 aren't hard routes.
They're designed for stuff like the 39/40 in Newcastle where they potter around doing 10 mph all day imo and they'd actually be good for it aswell as you don't need a big engine for work like that.
The 21, X21 and 308 aren't those routes though. Thankfully Arriva saw sense and avoided them like the plague mostly after being pretty much 80% Wrightbus for years beforehand. Hopefully when they're replaced they get moved to the 51/52/57/93/94 where they'd actually be alright.
If anything, the B9TL's are complete overkill on the 307 & 309 and even an E400MMC would be overkill on such types of routes. The StreetDecks when eventually replaced on the 21, would be perfect for something such as the 307 & 309 with big fuel savings too! Not forgetting that GNE tried fitting GKN flywheel modifications to 6085-6117 back in 2014/15 as they were seen as overkill then. GNE only ordered B9TLs for the 56 & 309/310 as Arriva had their share in VDL and other than the B5LH which would've needed Govt funding, there was no other lightweight WrightBus bodied deckers on the market at the time when the order was made. And GNE would never have purchased any ADL products back then.