(12 Jan 2016, 4:12 pm)South Tyne Lad wrote The fact they were considered fit for a Demanding route like the X20 after being pounded to death from Enfield Depot in North London for 13 years is beyond belief, Moving the E400s to Belmont was a big mistake, Hopefully the 55reg B7TLs despite there more superior ZF gearbox than the earlier models like 7412 will only be another Stopgap till potential investment can come around.

Well that's Arriva for you. Get away with doing the bare minimum and yes, I know there's a good few routes where GNE have sheds knocking about but unlike GNE, Arriva's key and core routes are simply being run into the ground with cast off vehicles and too many dodgy workings with minimal effort of allocating the right vehicles.

Why refurbish 6 year old buses (at the time), for a PREMIUM service which of course had a very questionable history and Arriva are now in a position of not being able to cascade these vehicles (unless another division wants more spares). And secondly, why don't Arriva actually invest into the X20 and try to create growth on it?

Put it this way, if Arriva keep doing the bare minimum they can get away with, then it won't be long before we hear some E400s with voith gearboxes knocking around Northumberland and it won't do Arriva any favours.