(29 Oct 2017, 5:50 pm)mb134 wrote Between 2009 and 2015, Arriva bought a total of 313 brand new vehicles for the NE fleet.

In 2016, the second oldest set of vehicles in the fleet, the Y-EBR Lowlanders, were replaced by 55-plate Volvo B7TLs from London, only 10 years of age at the time. ALL of these were treated to a full interior refurbishment with, correct me if I'm wrong, USB charging, high backed e-leather seating and WiFi. 

Now, look at the Arriva fleetlist and tell me where massive investment is needed in brand new vehicles. The B10BLEs will likely go next year, but even so they are still smart internally due to their refurbishment in 2011(?), but only this year did they reach typical "end of life" for a single deck - hell, First are re-trimming and repainting their Y-reg examples in Aberdeen. 

Arriva aren't going to splash out millions ever year on brand new vehicles when they don't need to. Same applies with Go North East and Stagecoach.

Replacing the Scania Omnicities at Darlington, it's well documented how unreliable they are, given a vehicle a refurb and a lick of paint isn't going to improve reliability of a service now is it, I would also look at putting the Ex London B7 Geminis into a reserve role, rather than on a front line express service like the X20.

The services that I noted as part of my original post I do feel would benefit from new vehicles, the X12 being a good example given the fact Go North East are rumoured to be getting new vehicles for the 21 in the next month or so.