(30 Aug 2014, 6:27 pm)Greg in Weardale wrote No, it's very difficult to put passes on the machine reader on some GNE buses when the external reader isn't working. The only gap is the space to take a ticket and there's very little room to put the pass/key card on top.
The majority of the cabs of vehicles in the North Division have already been modified. A number of the vehicles in the fleet already had these cut-outs when they were new (this applies to the Citaros new in 2010 onwards, and possibly a few others buses too).