(19 Feb 2016, 12:31 pm)GX03 SVC wrote Ashington are back at square one with these stupid E400s, approaching 1 1/2 years since the problems started. Thank goodness that there is similar spec vehicles that can be used to keep the service with the standard of WiFi.
The X20 should be fully MAX until tomorrow, after the free vouchers are no longer valid, sadly over the last couple of weeks, this means that long-haul services like the X15/8 suffer when they want a full MAX allocation on the X20.
I think its time for Arriva to bite the bullet and buy 9 brand new E400's for the X21/22, to go alongside 7522-8. These reliability issues will just get worse as the 57-reg ones get older (if they're this bad at 8 years old, imagine them in a couple of years!), and that isn't great for a 'premium' service is it?!
It's also time for Arriva to buy vehicles suited to the routes they'll be allocated to. Lets not forget that, soon after the E400's were bought for the X31/2/3, 10+ year old Olympians were still appearing at a higher frequency than they should have been, and for a year or two prior to their withdrawal, they made up pretty much the full allocation.
Oh, and for anyone who doesn't think the X21/22 justifies brand new vehicles, I suggest you take a ride on any of the peak time runs, and try to find a seat.