(05 Oct 2015, 7:55 pm)mb134 wrote I'd agree here, I think long routes such as the 685 should, because of the way Arriva have equipped each service level, be Sapphire rather than MAX,
A power supply will be far more useful on a 2+ hour journey than it would be on short hops between Newcastle and Ashington (less than an hour), then again, Yorkshire MAX E400's have sockets....
I think the X18 could do with NSA's as well, think I may have mentioned it before, as it is a very touristy route. Not sure what the 685 is like as I've never used it.
I think higher spec vehicles on the 685 would be a good idea, I feel the buses should have better seating, the seats in the Stagecoach Gold buses would be brilliant on this route or the fabric seating on the Stagecoach 685's. Power sockets would be great on this route too, if the StreetLite's on the X1 Darlington - Tow Law can have them then I don't see why the 685 can't have them. Annoyingly Arriva now seem to limit the WiFi usage, I can only seem to get about an hours usage in a day across the Sapphire network. The same could be said for the X15/X18 and X93.