(03 Jan 2015, 7:17 pm)tyresmoke wrote A lot of passengers are easily fooled and tend to think anything that looks smart is a "new bus" regardless of age. Interiors are something that has let ANE down in the past - though it is getting sorted with the likes of MAX, Sapphire being implemented. I think the joint management with Yorkshire has also helped to steer things in the right direction as their buses look so well looked after - materially at least, if not mechanically (that MPD [223] we had on loan at Stockton was shot and its no surprise it was binned asap!)

I agree that it's great that it looks like Arriva are taking a bit more pride with their fleet, especially cascades from London etc. as they will have had a pretty tough life. What is happening now must surely be the largest refurbishment scheme, if you could call it that, that ANE has ever done, and the results should be rewarding for them.

I think the fact that a great deal of vehicles going their entire lives without being touched internally was a bit of a mistake and a mistake ANE realised, the M and P reg Olympians for example probably deserved something after spending a large amount of their 16 year lives on routes with very high passenger numbers. 7436-44 should also have had something done