(21 Jun 2020, 4:12 pm)Storx wrote I'm guessing we're going to have to agree to disagree here and see what happens. We both have very different opinions of the future and I can't see it being too significant in the long term not until at least the Northumberland line is opened (if it ever is).

There's other areas that imo would go before the Blyth expresses.

I agree where you're coming from in terms of changing something that's familiar. Arriva do very well with their local routes such as the 51/51A/57/57A/1/2

But in terms of their core routes, a PVR decrease of 11 vehicles whilst only slightly cutting services is a very significant saving and would allow Arriva to operate more sustainably. No routes would be changed as such in terms of the route that they take.

If Arriva were to order vehicles with the X10 & X11 in their current form plus the 308, that would be 23x vehicles (excl spares). That's not taking into account the 306 & X9.

If Arriva were to however order vehicles for the X9/X10/X11 & 306/308 in the future, then 26x vehicles (excl spares) would be needed but...................that's still 9x less than what would be required with services in their current form.

If they ordered spares, 2x at Blyth covering a PVR of 19x and 1x at Jesmond covering PVR of 7x. That still leaves Arriva with 6x less vehicles required even with a suitable spare ratio taken into account. In turn, that would significantly reduce associated costs and improve reliability in terms of vehicle uptime.