(02 Feb 2016, 1:35 pm)Dan wrote These seats are heavier. I may be wrong, but I believe that the installation of these seats would result in the operator not being able to claim an enhanced rate of BSOG payment, due to the increased total weight of the vehicle.

Providing better quality seats may be able to be justified for some services, but I highly doubt it. I would expect this is why Go North East and Arriva North East stick to Esteban Civic V3 seating as their most 'luxurious' seating type.

I wonder if the extra weight is offset by there being less seats overall on the vehicle? I've not done a count but there was clearly less seats on the Gold spec e300s compared to standard Stagecoach. 

The corridor these buses run on is served by 10 buses per hour and appeared to run as a 'walk-on' service Chester whereby as one bus departed the next pulled up out of layover to load. Although running less departures with higher capacity buses would be more economical, it could be argued that the combination of high spec interior plus ultra frequent Departures is more appealing to motorists opting to be first time bus users. Maybe this is the thinking behind this 'quality over quantity' and it may pay off in the long term