There seems to be confusion as to who is meant to have 1407, I am of the understanding it's Ashington's as it was based there prior to going to Darlington for  while as I think Darlington got it after having to give up a Solo to Redcar/Whitby after one of theirs burnt out then was no longer required once 4802 returned to service

Realistically the machines should get fleet number updated IMO but seems dependent on who gets their hands on them, Darlington have had a few loans recently and have had the correct fleet numbers assigned after at least some time into the loan.

Talking about updating fleet numbers on machines Darlington currently have 2822 on loan from Durham/Jesmond, that literally came down and had its fleet number assigned to a ticket machine within minutes, same time it got the destinations updated

No wonder when their drivers stand not socially distanced from one another at the top of Haymarket smoking/vaping which to me shows a lack a care for not just themselves, but shows a lack of for their respective families, the company the work for and the passengers they provide a service to. I honestly think their depot management need to look into this further as clearly they are not following the rules.

Makes you wonder what measures have been put in place in the meal rooms at Haymarket/Durham along with at the depots, As I don't see a spare bus being used for meal breaks like Go North East have at various Bus Stations across the region.

Then the company should be putting further measures in place to ensure all members of staff are working within a safe working environment which from what you have just posted is not the case, again as noted in my previous post Go North East have placed their Driver Training Fleet at various Bus Station to provide extra space to ensure staff are kept within a safe environment whilst on a meal break.

As for having breaks sat in your car in the car park, why not if it ensures your and your families safety along with that of your work colleagues.

I work in a Call Centre which when fully staffed pre-covid had 800 people working within the office, now we are probably at 50% of that due to those working from home and our Canteen isn't the biggest either however we have managed to make that area socially distanced with all tables which would normally seat 6 seating 2 and are all 2 metres apart, on the call floor everyone is sat 2 metres apart to ensure it is covid secure and with those measures in place along with regular cleaning of the office throughout the day we have had 0 cases of covid-19 in the 10 months we have been in this awful pandemic, seems to me the company you work for are not doing enough to protect it's staff.

To be honest in any see any similarities between your call centre analogy and driving a bus, do you get random member of the public dropping into your call centre every three or four minutes, handing you cash that’s been god knows where before they hand it over. Do you have the same said members of the public coughing all over the place and if they are wearing a face covering 99% of the time it’s incorrectly. No I thought not. The problem here is that the company aren’t interested in driver’s safety and and well-being it’s all about lining the pockets of the shareholders. I could give you numerous examples on request of the pure idiocy of the general travelling public. I’ll give you this one as a starter for ten. The service I was driving this morning has a terminus loop at both ends, my bus was empty, one passenger boarded at a stop around the loop. At the terminus timing point a lady boarded with her exemption card round her neck like a medal of achievement. Where did she sit ?? That’s right of the other 38 seats on the bus she chose the one directly behind the bloke who had gotten on two stops earlier. This is the kind of stupidity we as drivers are having to deal with on a daily basis.

A notice went up in my depot this morning asking for volunteers to go to Jesmond (where two drivers have sadly died) to cover the driver shortfall there. The reward being an extra two hours pay per day to cover travelling time. I'm sure there'll be a cue a mile long to risk their lives for the princely sum of about £15 per day after tax.

A notice went up in my depot this morning asking for volunteers to go to Jesmond (where two drivers have sadly died) to cover the driver shortfall there. The reward being an extra two hours pay per day to cover travelling time. I'm sure there'll be a cue a mile long to risk their lives for the princely sum of about £15 per day after tax.

Could Blyth not temporarily take on the 43 using a float vehicle to change drivers in Cramlington or Bedlington?

Could Blyth not temporarily take on the 43 using a float vehicle to change drivers in Cramlington or Bedlington?

Not enough buses at Blyth to run them, they've got full size buses on the 1 and 2 atm. The only bus you realistically could do it with would be the 51/51A since the minibuses are off the road but the savings in drivers it's not really worth it.

If the driver shortages continue, would Nexus & NCC (given some of the routes) have the power to step in and sub contract additional capacity to reduce cancelled journeys? (i.e JH, Stanley Taxis/Coaches, GNE)

If the driver shortages continue, would Nexus & NCC (given some of the routes) have the power to step in and sub contract additional capacity to reduce cancelled journeys? (i.e JH, Stanley Taxis/Coaches, GNE)

No, Arriva could though.

Nexus / NCC have no control over any routes, unless they subsidise them but they'll be ran anyway as they won't want the fines. It's like saying if Morrisons is short staffed can NCC take control and sub contract staff to reduce queues at the tills.

Didn't really know where to put this but couldn't arriva not try what border buses done or could still be doing) and have it so that each driver has their own bus for each shift during the pandemic to reduce contacts and there fire hopefully stop whats going on at Jesmond going on anywhere else.

Didn't really know where to put this but couldn't arriva not try what border buses done or could still be doing) and have it so that each driver has their own bus for each shift during the pandemic to reduce contacts and there fire hopefully stop whats going on at Jesmond going on anywhere else.

Not really as wouldn't be enough buses to do this with and limited/nowhere to layover so would probs have to go back to depots in-between runs which would add to the driving hours which could make shifts more hassle to plan and lead to more drivers being required which they don't have.

Only really works at Borders Buses as there's much more suitable layover areas at the likes of Galashiels Interchange and they've significantly cut the service levels so they have the resources to be able to do so.

Seems like the problems at Ashington aren't getting any better even with the reduced service levels.

Noticed 1800 has been allocated to the X14 all day today and it's not a swap neither - https://bustimes.org/vehicles/190847
Also 1768 has appeared be doing some Ashington runs aswell - https://bustimes.org/vehicles/189613

Guessing they're getting pretty desperate and it seems there's like 8 buses off the road now. Not sure why Blyth are using Darts over Solo's either given the age differences.

Seems like the problems at Ashington aren't getting any better even with the reduced service levels.

Noticed 1800 has been allocated to the X14 all day today and it's not a swap neither - https://bustimes.org/vehicles/190847
Also 1768 has appeared be doing some Ashington runs aswell - https://bustimes.org/vehicles/189613

Yep, as a surprise to absolutely nobody 7511/2/4/6/7 all VOR today (7512 emerged for a PM peak). 4653/9 both failed at some stage this morning, the former resulting in 7510 having a day on the X20 (my condolences to whoever got given that, with it's max speed of 40). 1579 has also been VOR for nearly two weeks. 

7445/84, two weeks after the service reduction, were in use on the Sapphire cycle today - nothing screams premium more than a 20 year old ex-London B7TL. 1768, which was also on the Sapphire cycle (actually, this is possibly even worse than the B7TL?), was replaced prior to the evening peak with 7524 which had been pulled off the X18 on Friday night. 

As far as I can tell the issues boil down to this: 7511/2/4-7 are horrendous. Their poor reliability means the vastly more capable 7524-8 are getting used on the Alnwick side more and more regularly, which is both impacting their reliability as well as meaning stuff like 1768 has to fill in for them on the X21/22. The horrendous condition of 7511/2/4-7 means that 7529-33 and 7553-6 are the main allocation on X18 boards which stay out until midnight, Mon-Sun, with 7524-8 also frequently appearing on these. In turn this means that they're all getting hammered 7 days a week, as the 57/09 plates are simply too unreliable (not to mention the Scanias) to put out on Sundays/evenings - though obviously this is sometimes a necessity, especially if a couple end at Alnwick on a Saturday night. Eventually it gets to here, where everything is dropping to bits because you've had to accomodate the shocking reliability of 9 of your MAX buses (incl. Scanias) for what is a number of years now. The decision to cancel those deckers due last year is looking worse by the day.

You'd hope that if upper management were in any way competent at their jobs, new vehicles would be in the pipeline. However given the overall condition of the fleet recently, especially in terms of presentation and reliability, I think we'll sooner see pigs fly than see competence from Mr. Peace and co.

Yep, as a surprise to absolutely nobody 7511/2/4/6/7 all VOR today (7512 emerged for a PM peak). 4653/9 both failed at some stage this morning, the former resulting in 7510 having a day on the X20 (my condolences to whoever got given that, with it's max speed of 40). 1579 has also been VOR for nearly two weeks. 

7445/84, two weeks after the service reduction, were in use on the Sapphire cycle today - nothing screams premium more than a 20 year old ex-London B7TL. 1768, which was also on the Sapphire cycle (actually, this is possibly even worse than the B7TL?), was replaced prior to the evening peak with 7524 which had been pulled off the X18 on Friday night. 

As far as I can tell the issues boil down to this: 7511/2/4-7 are horrendous. Their poor reliability means the vastly more capable 7524-8 are getting used on the Alnwick side more and more regularly, which is both impacting their reliability as well as meaning stuff like 1768 has to fill in for them on the X21/22. The horrendous condition of 7511/2/4-7 means that 7529-33 and 7553-6 are the main allocation on X18 boards which stay out until midnight, Mon-Sun, with 7524-8 also frequently appearing on these. In turn this means that they're all getting hammered 7 days a week, as the 57/09 plates are simply too unreliable (not to mention the Scanias) to put out on Sundays/evenings - though obviously this is sometimes a necessity, especially if a couple end at Alnwick on a Saturday night. Eventually it gets to here, where everything is dropping to bits because you've had to accomodate the shocking reliability of 9 of your MAX buses (incl. Scanias) for what is a number of years now. The decision to cancel those deckers due last year is looking worse by the day.

You'd hope that if upper management were in any way competent at their jobs, new vehicles would be in the pipeline. However given the overall condition of the fleet recently, especially in terms of presentation and reliability, I think we'll sooner see pigs fly than see competence from Mr. Peace and co.

Yeah definitely agreed, not sure how they'll even fix it without investment tbh as sending up old London deckers and expecting them to run on express routes to Berwick isn't going to work. Could possible take Darlington's but not sure what's going on down there neither as the 7 has been ran with Scania's and a Solo today so either it's a weird choice or the bunch down there are as bad.

Mind whoever thought interworking the 35/X21/X22 needs to be asked questions especially if Ashington had a say as it's no wonder there's even bigger problems now since they've lost the dumping ground of the 35 of putting the usual suspects on 7510, 7445 and 7446 - 7510 in particular which the depot staff obviously don't rate at all since the 1800 and earlier in the week 2809 have been allocated over it.

Be interesting to see if we get cancellations soon especially since it's a rare working in itself to have a day to have minis on the 57 so to be relying on them for the express work then it's a sitting duck.

Yeah definitely agreed, not sure how they'll even fix it without investment tbh as sending up old London deckers and expecting them to run on express routes to Berwick isn't going to work. Could possible take Darlington's but not sure what's going on down there neither as the 7 has been ran with Scania's and a Solo today so either it's a weird choice or the bunch down there are as bad.

Mind whoever thought interworking the 35/X21/X22 needs to be asked questions especially if Ashington had a say as it's no wonder there's even bigger problems now since they've lost the dumping ground of the 35 of putting the usual suspects on 7510, 7445 and 7446 - 7510 in particular which the depot staff obviously don't rate at all since the 1800 and earlier in the week 2809 have been allocated over it.

Be interesting to see if we get cancellations soon especially since it's a rare working in itself to have a day to have minis on the 57 so to be relying on them for the express work then it's a sitting duck.

Some of the Darlo 15 plates have never seemed amazing tbh, in terms of reliability anyway - 7538 was/is quite problematic iirc. The 14/64 plates aren't bad at all, it's just that they've been hammered so much over the past couple of years that they're picking up wear and tear niggles frequently now, and obviously major component issues more often than they would have otherwise. Ex-London stuff would likely be fine for a couple of years before landing again in the current situation, though really only if its Volvo stuff, we've seen with 7510 how bad ex-London E400s are.

Yeah they've lost the 35 dumping ground, however in theory that is what was dropped from the PVR requirement. So really 7445/6/84/86 should all be parked up. The X21/22 and 35 cycle has an identical PVR to the normal X21/22 cycle iirc, so 12x MMC and 2x 14 plates should cover it, obviously though the 14 plates are being punted onto Alnwick work. If they were kept standalone on 30 minute frequencies there'd be a boat load of layover time, so I understand the logic behind the combination.

Yeah definitely agreed, not sure how they'll even fix it without investment tbh as sending up old London deckers and expecting them to run on express routes to Berwick isn't going to work. Could possible take Darlington's but not sure what's going on down there neither as the 7 has been ran with Scania's and a Solo today so either it's a weird choice or the bunch down there are as bad.

Mind whoever thought interworking the 35/X21/X22 needs to be asked questions especially if Ashington had a say as it's no wonder there's even bigger problems now since they've lost the dumping ground of the 35 of putting the usual suspects on 7510, 7445 and 7446 - 7510 in particular which the depot staff obviously don't rate at all since the 1800 and earlier in the week 2809 have been allocated over it.

Be interesting to see if we get cancellations soon especially since it's a rare working in itself to have a day to have minis on the 57 so to be relying on them for the express work then it's a sitting duck.

With the service changes today Darlington currently have 2 long 7s to Durham but then 2 short 7s to Harrogate hill, Scanias and solo were the short 7s, the long 7s were deckers and a pulsar, with the service 2s now requiring euro 5 or euro 6 engine vehicles scanias can’t be used on the 2 no more due to the Amazon contract so have to find a home for them somewhere

Getting back to Darlingtons 15 plate deckers, to be honest they aren’t the greatest, not a day of by where one of them isn’t off road or don’t fail during the day, I was on 7534 the other day for essential reasons, it was struggling to get any power higher than 30mph

Some of the Darlo 15 plates have never seemed amazing tbh, in terms of reliability anyway - 7538 was/is quite problematic iirc. The 14/64 plates aren't bad at all, it's just that they've been hammered so much over the past couple of years that they're picking up wear and tear niggles frequently now, and obviously major component issues more often than they would have otherwise. Ex-London stuff would likely be fine for a couple of years before landing again in the current situation, though really only if its Volvo stuff, we've seen with 7510 how bad ex-London E400s are.

Yeah they've lost the 35 dumping ground, however in theory that is what was dropped from the PVR requirement. So really 7445/6/84/86 should all be parked up. The X21/22 and 35 cycle has an identical PVR to the normal X21/22 cycle iirc, so 12x MMC and 2x 14 plates should cover it, obviously though the 14 plates are being punted onto Alnwick work. If they were kept standalone on 30 minute frequencies there'd be a boat load of layover time, so I understand the logic behind the combination.

Yeah that's a fair point; honestly don't really know the interworking patterns so couldn't say much but makes sense.

With the service changes today Darlington currently have 2 long 7s to Durham but then 2 short 7s to Harrogate hill, Scanias and solo were the short 7s, the long 7s were deckers and a pulsar, with the service 2s now requiring euro 5 or euro 6 engine vehicles scanias can’t be used on the 2 no more due to the Amazon contract so have to find a home for them somewhere

Getting back to Darlingtons 15 plate deckers, to be honest they aren’t the greatest, not a day of by where one of them isn’t off road or don’t fail during the day, I was on 7534 the other day for essential reasons, it was struggling to get any power higher than 30mph

Makes sense with the 7, see what you mean now.

Seems like Arriva and Enviro's up here just don't mix since it's pretty much all of them knackered, especially buses which are only 5 years old. Always remember Blyth absolutely wrecking 7501 - 7506 on the 308 and those limping around after a couple years with 7514 and 7515 aswell which they also got their hands on. Oddly the 2 Enviros at Ashington which are off the road constantly and are causing all the problems.

You'd hope that if upper management were in any way competent at their jobs, new vehicles would be in the pipeline. However given the overall condition of the fleet recently, especially in terms of presentation and reliability, I think we'll sooner see pigs fly than see competence from Mr. Peace and co.

My theory is that Arriva is being "asset stripped" (minimal money spent) ready for a sale.

Now might be a good time to buy some shares in Gold paint (or perhaps Blue/White/Orange).

In all seriousness though, GNE would make a good go of the Ashington & Alnwick 'X' routes. Bike racks would be a huge hit too particularly on the X14/X18/X20.

My theory is that Arriva is being "asset stripped" (minimal money spent) ready for a sale.

Now might be a good time to buy some shares in Gold paint (or perhaps Blue/White/Orange).

In all seriousness though, GNE would make a good go of the Ashington & Alnwick 'X' routes. Bike racks would be a huge hit too particularly on the X14/X18/X20.

You might want to go and research what asset stripping is as spending little money isn't asset stripping.

You might want to go and research what asset stripping is as spending little money isn't asset stripping.

Ok, not strictly asset stripping but very similar. DB have effectively washed their hands of Arriva.

My theory is that Arriva is being "asset stripped" (minimal money spent) ready for a sale.

Now might be a good time to buy some shares in Gold paint (or perhaps Blue/White/Orange).

In all seriousness though, GNE would make a good go of the Ashington & Alnwick 'X' routes. Bike racks would be a huge hit too particularly on the X14/X18/X20.

Conversely, a business with a fleet that needs huge investment wouldn't hold a big sale price either, given the buyer would know about this. It makes no sense to run a business down if you wish to sell it.

Let's be clear though, Go North East wouldn't be allowed by the CMA to buy Arriva as it stands and would be forced to sell parts of it where they consider a serious reduction in competition. County Durham for example.

If Arriva was up for sale again, likely a whole new operator (First, Transdev etc).

Conversely, a business with a fleet that needs huge investment wouldn't hold a big sale price either, given the buyer would know about this. It makes no sense to run a business down if you wish to sell it.

Let's be clear though, Go North East wouldn't be allowed by the CMA to buy Arriva as it stands and would be forced to sell parts of it where they consider a serious reduction in competition. County Durham for example.

If Arriva was up for sale again, likely a whole new operator (First, Transdev etc).

I doubt FirstBus would venture into the North East. Transdev to Whitby & Redcar wouldn't be a surprise though.

The rest of it would most likely see Stagecoach taking all of Durham & Tees with the exception of Stockton going to GNE. X12 would no doubt fully go to Stagecoach.

Northumbria would most likely see GNE take Ashington & Jesmond with Blyth going to Stagecoach.  Stagecoach would most likely take the 306 (don't think GNE would want it) as well as fully take the 685.

Ok, not strictly asset stripping but very similar. DB have effectively washed their hands of Arriva.

It's not like haha. Asset stripping is where you sell everything you own; property, vehicles, land and cash the money for yourself and then lease everything back with absolutely stupid interest rates and dump the company with no assets and leases which increase yearly at stupid rates. They're also unsellable as there's nothing to buy bar a lot of leases you don't want leading to them going bust.

Kingfisher is probably the biggest example of this in the UK with Woolworths where they sold all the Woolworths stores off and leased them back and used that money to fund B&Q and then eventually just dumped Woolworths leading to what happened. Debenhams and BHS are two other companies which it's happened to in recent times.

Whatever you think of DB, they're no-where near that level.

Tbf though this isn't the first time it's happened as it happened 15 years ago pre DB aswell with Scanias at Blyth which we're leaking, Metroriders on the X31/X32 often. The 308 being ran by the extremely outdated ex London Olympian N113's. Seems to be a trend with Arriva. Arriva North East are arguable in a much better place atm rather than the likes of Prismas doing the X1 and X93 constantly breaking down and so on plus Prestiges in general.

Whatever you think of DB, they're no-where near that level.

Tbf though this isn't the first time it's happened as it happened 15 years ago pre DB aswell with Scanias at Blyth which we're leaking, Metroriders on the X31/X32 often. The 308 being ran by the extremely outdated ex London Olympian N113's. Seems to be a trend with Arriva. Arriva North East are arguable in a much better place atm rather than the likes of Prismas doing the X1 and X93 constantly breaking down and so on plus Prestiges in general.

Yeah it seems cyclical. Those at the top seem to think large scale investment needs to happen two or three times per 10-15 years, still living in the years of Leyland/Volvo Olympians... If you look at Arriva as a whole, there has been investment at a more steady pace in other regions, Yorkshire, Merseyside and some of the ones down south spring to mind.

DB, ultimately, don't control the day to day goings on at ANE. The regional MD is responsible there, for things like shoddy presentation and deteriorating reliability - lets not forget the new MD has an engineering heavy CV, so its surprising that the overall standard appears to have nosedived since he took over the show.

Yeah it seems cyclical. Those at the top seem to think large scale investment needs to happen two or three times per 10-15 years, still living in the years of Leyland/Volvo Olympians... If you look at Arriva as a whole, there has been investment at a more steady pace in other regions, Yorkshire, Merseyside and some of the ones down south spring to mind.

DB, ultimately, don't control the day to day goings on at ANE. The regional MD is responsible there, for things like shoddy presentation and deteriorating reliability - lets not forget the new MD has an engineering heavy CV, so its surprising that the overall standard appears to have nosedived since he took over the show.

Budgets will be key and I wouldn't be surprised to see them stretched to the limit.
Looking at Featham's track record and the ongoing issues at GNW, I'd not be surprised if motivation and moral was low. 
Tight budget and the implications of it, low moral and ageing vehicles - not a challenge for the faint hearted.

Budgets will be key and I wouldn't be surprised to see them stretched to the limit.
Looking at Featham's track record and the ongoing issues at GNW, I'd not be surprised if motivation and moral was low. 
Tight budget and the implications of it, low moral and ageing vehicles - not a challenge for the faint hearted.

I think the main issue is undoubtedly the lack of investment in new vehicles. You sort that out, you can change the engineering budget to increase what you can spend on paint (maybe contact the GNE suppliers for a nice deal) and vinyls as reliability will increase so you're not spending thousands a week on Alpha jobs. At the moment its just a vicious cycle and it'll take a decent chunk of money over the next few years (and it needs to be over the next few years) to sort it out. 

Featham was always a bit of a weird one, didn't exactly know what to make of him. I think by the end Nick Knox seemed completely disinterested and was just counting down the days to retirement. New bloke has been in the job for nearly a year at this point, and I'm not too sure what there is to show for it? Granted though, morale was likely on the floor as you say.

Yeah it seems cyclical. Those at the top seem to think large scale investment needs to happen two or three times per 10-15 years, still living in the years of Leyland/Volvo Olympians... If you look at Arriva as a whole, there has been investment at a more steady pace in other regions, Yorkshire, Merseyside and some of the ones down south spring to mind.

DB, ultimately, don't control the day to day goings on at ANE. The regional MD is responsible there, for things like shoddy presentation and deteriorating reliability - lets not forget the new MD has an engineering heavy CV, so its surprising that the overall standard appears to have nosedived since he took over the show.

Yeah definitely agree with the local stuff, probably budget stuff with Covid not helping as Andros said. We have to give them credit for trying to keep services as much as they could which you can't really fault them and they were the only one of the big 3 to restore everything back to pre covid levels in the Summer.

I know there's a lot of Arriva / GNE discussion on here but Stagecoach needs a mention here mind as out of the big 3 north of the Tyne they are by far the one in the biggest trouble fleetwise and the lack of investment there is just the same really, especially on singles. God knows what they're planning to do with no investment, an incoming LEZ and approximately 51 MAN buses which tbh are junk and they've just repainted one of the ALX 300's so they're going nowhere. Not to mention the aging Enviro 400 fleet and the hybrids which are having similar breakdowns to Ashington.

Just thought I'd bring that up when you mentioned the cycle patterns as they both do it, but once you start buying junk (let's be honest they are compared to Leylands etc) with poor engines and turbos they aren't going to last 15 years especially on hard work.

Yeah definitely agree with the local stuff, probably budget stuff with Covid not helping as Andros said. We have to give them credit for trying to keep services as much as they could which you can't really fault them and they were the only one of the big 3 to restore everything back to pre covid levels in the Summer.

I know there's a lot of Arriva / GNE discussion on here but Stagecoach needs a mention here mind as out of the big 3 north of the Tyne they are by far the one in the biggest trouble fleetwise and the lack of investment there is just the same really, especially on singles. God knows what they're planning to do with no investment, an incoming LEZ and approximately 51 MAN buses which tbh are junk and they've just repainted one of the ALX 300's so they're going nowhere. Not to mention the aging Enviro 400 fleet and the hybrids which are having similar breakdowns to Ashington.

Just thought I'd bring that up when you mentioned the cycle patterns as they both do it, but once you start buying junk (let's be honest they are compared to Leylands etc) with poor engines and turbos they aren't going to last 15 years especially on hard work. 

I genuinely think the lightweight, low-rated vehicles are a false economy.
It's the same as when you see a 1litre Ford Focus on the motorway. MPG might be fantastic and the lower tax on the old scheme was very light on the pocket. 
But there's absolutely no-chance that 1.0 Focus is going to stand the test of time vs a 1.5 diesel of the same age, doing the same sort of work. 

Add in all the 'extras' on to the bus, such as the after-market fuel management systems etc and they're asking for trouble.
Short term thinking...

Just thought I'd bring that up when you mentioned the cycle patterns as they both do it, but once you start buying junk (let's be honest they are compared to Leylands etc) with poor engines and turbos they aren't going to last 15 years especially on hard work.

Aye that's what I was meaning. Their mindset seems to be that they're still running a network of Volvos and Scanias which to an extent they are, but they aren't the same as Olympians, L113 saloons etc. 

Operators like Arriva and First who seem to invest in large batches rather than a smaller batch here and there (like GNE for example), they really need to be looking at heavy duty stuff rather than StreetLites, for example. I've said it before but I think if Volvo came out now with a decker chassis with the engine from the B8RLE, companies like Arriva and First would snap them up - especially considering both companies are using elderly B7TLs and B7RLEs reliably as part of their frontline fleets.

I've banged on about it before, but it's of note again I think. I've used buses on the continent quite a bit, particularly in Norway, and they tend to use heavy duty stuff (Volvo, Merc etc). They also have pretty decent public transport usage - I'd wager this is at least partially because services are reliable, so folk are more comfortable using them. All the gimmicks in the world don't make a lightweight vehicle suitable for a demanding route.

Modern E400s are fine for frontline service until around 7-8 years of age (5 for endurance routes such as X14/X15/X18/X20) if looked after properly. The 57 plate E400s that didn't fall in the hands of Blyth and Redcar were fine when used on the X21/X22.

If Arriva were to purchase new vehicles (unlikely), I'd suggest the following types depending on the routes:

- 308 = StreetDeck OM934
- X7/X8/X9/X10/X11 = ADL E400MMC (ZF)
- X21/X22 = ADL E400MMC (ZF)
- X14/X15/X18/X20 = StreetDeck OM936

Rest assured Arriva won't be spending a penny on new buses until the long term implications of the covid carry on are understood. Throw in the new SE Northumberland rail link sheduled to open in 2023 and I'd imagine the fleet numbers needed to cover demand could shrink by 20-30% over the next few years. I'm sure there will also continue to be a steady stream of 10-15 year old vehicles arrive from down south to replace the oldest dross up here for the forseeable future as well.

Modern E400s are fine for frontline service until around 7-8 years of age (5 for endurance routes such as X14/X15/X18/X20) if looked after properly. The 57 plate E400s that didn't fall in the hands of Blyth and Redcar were fine when used on the X21/X22.

If Arriva were to purchase new vehicles (unlikely), I'd suggest the following types depending on the routes:

- 308 = StreetDeck OM934
- X7/X8/X9/X10/X11 = ADL E400MMC (ZF)
- X21/X22 = ADL E400MMC (ZF)
- X14/X15/X18/X20 = StreetDeck OM936

Plz plz oh god let this happen. An MMC on the X8 to Newcastle instead of it being an VDL DB300 Wright Gemini 2