(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.
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.
It's all this patter with fleet standardisation though isn't it?
On one hand you've got a potential ready supply of parts and fitters who are type trained by virtue of everything being the same.
The downside, is that you've got a fleet which isn't set up to meet the network requirements.
It's like a taxi company having a fleet of Skoda vehicles. Common parts, easy for the mechanics to switch between one and the other etc.
The Octavias will be great for distance stuff to the airport, but sticking a Fabia out on the same run isn't going to do it much good.