(25 Aug 2017, 10:11 pm)mb134 wrote Wonder what the hell was going through the heads of whoever sent it to Ashington in the first place at this point! Assuming someone at Ashington depot piped up and told someone that trialling it on the Alnwick expresses would be a completely pointless task if it was limited to 50?

They are going to be seriously hard pressed in a couple of years when it comes to replacing 7412-6, 4653/9, and probably 7511-3 (Including 7511-13 in that because, while only 9 years old, they've had a rough 9 years). One double deck on the market has already been ruled out, currently it seems pigs will fly before Arriva buy anything with a Volvo chassis (even though B8RLEs are probably the best option to replace 4653/9) and Streetlites/E200MMCs aren't capable. That leaves E400 MMCs, and the ones on the X21/22 don't strike me with an awful lot of confidence.

Wonder how that happened. 

What I'm told is that the X15 is earmarked for new buses next year, when I was told about the StreetDeck coming for trials, the lad did say that those were the types that were coming. 

What I assume will happen, is that the E400s off the X15 cascade onto the X20, withdrawing or transferring 7412-6.