(27 Aug 2015, 2:07 pm)mb134 wrote Think my lack of demonstrator knowledge lies in the fact that they've never ventured north of the Tyne then!
But you hit the nail on the head, the X18, the X93 etc, are very demanding routes, if a bus performs well on those, they'll handle anything. You wouldn't want B9TL operating a city route though, like you wouldn't want a Streetdeck on the X93, which is why I don't agree with Arriva's 'E400 for everything' policy, although I'd prefer E400's everywhere than Streetdeck's everywhere...
The E400 Euro 5 onwards is a far cry from the likes of W*** SCU/EGR/PNL and W*** RBB. It's all down to who is looking after them at the end of the day. The likes of GNE who buy 1 spare for approximately 7 vehicles will make theirs last 7 years on a frontline service (TEN, Red Arrows, TTX, Pronto). The 57 plates which have suffered the most reliability issues have been in the hands of Blyth and Redcar depots with even a Blyth driver commenting on the state of the engine bays when they were there for the 308 and struggling on the Coast Road slip roads.