(03 Sep 2017, 8:19 am)Jimmi wrote Other than it not being route branded for the X5, I don't see a problem with this, like you say it is likely to be for the reason given, I'd rather have a service run with a little bus than use a big bus only for the service to swiftly be withdrawn because it can't cover the increased costs of running a large bus, probably just enthusiasts not happy about beastie Solo mates being used over Citaro's. Do the Black Cats Solo SRs have WiFi or USBs? As if not, that's the only other downside to that allocation.

Solo's being used on Sunday's on routes that use full size buses during the week ain't nothing new either, Arriva do the same.

A low-carbon emission Optare Solo achieves, on average, 10 MPG. As well as this; Go North East can claim a BSOG payment of an additional 6p per kilometre, operated in public service. By comparison, a Mercedes Citaro achieves around 8 MPG, with no additional BSOG payments.

Let's say that a trip on the X5, between Sunderland and Hartlepool, is approximately 27 miles (or 43.5km). A round trip would be 54 miles (or 87km). Looking at the timetable, there's around 10 round trips per day (so 540 miles or 870 kilometres, for the Sunday operation).

According to the Go Ahead year end results, Go North East has hedged its fuel price at 36.4p per litre.

So if my mental arithmetic is up to scratch on this fine Sunday afternoon, excluding driver costs, it would cost the following to run the bus itself:

Mercedes Citaro - £111.70
Low-carbon Optare Solo - £89.36, less £52.20 (which Go North East would receive in additional BSOG) = £37.16

Of course these are just rough numbers, but that equates to a difference of £74.54. Just for a change in vehicle allocation. It is the downside of branding and a difficult choice for the operator to make, but for a developmental service, it makes sense to run the service at as small a cost as possible.

The internal specification of the buses isn't vastly different (the Solos have Wi-Fi and Next Stop Announcements, only missing the USB power sockets of the Mercedes Citaros normally allocated).

Should the Sunday service operate profitably and with high passenger numbers, I am sure we will see an upgrade in capacity provided. The Optare Solos could easily be deployed on the likes of services 135/136, with Streetlites instead being allocated to the X5 service, if the lower capacity on the Solos causes that much of an issue on the X5. For now, let's walk before we can run...