(18 Jul 2020, 4:42 pm)mb134 wrote Given that the B7RLE was available until 2013 I wonder if operators regret, looking back, opting for L94s and then Omnicities over sticking with one standard chassis/body type throughout.

Personally I don't think they would regret it. The markets shifted towards the late 2000s/early 2010s anyway to more lightweight and more fuel efficient vehicles, when reducing fuel consumption was all the rage for green credentials, so I think the shift towards the Versa and Streetlite rather than sticking to a "heavyweight" B7RLE option was going to be inevitable anyway. We saw that with the Citaros, a large number being ordered 2007/2008 and then only 1 small batch in 2010 and 1 small batch in 2013, the last "heavyweight" single decks ordered. Even in most other large companies there was a focus shift from the "heavyweight" offerings of MAN, Volvo and Scania to the "lightweight" full size single decks in the VDL Pulsar and the ADL Enviro 300, and then towards the Streetlite and E200MMC.

I think there's a passenger appeal element to it as well. Stagecoach for example have been quite good at just ordering the same old, and at times it gets to a point where a typical passenger cannot tell a brand new bus from say a 7 year old bus of the same type. Using Manchester as an example, a 64 plate E400 looks exactly the same as the 06 plates they had, so the investment in new buses would go unnoticed to a typical passenger and it becomes almost utilitarian. If GNE had done the same by sticking with Wright then you'd have had the same situation, but they changed to buying something completely different that stood out from the crowd, something that gets noticed as being a new bus to the typical passenger, especially at the time when GNE were introducing all of the different route brands. As a commercial operator you want it known that you are investing in the services to bring improvements, and nothing shows your investment better than the vehicles the passengers board.

The B7RLE wasn't available until 2003 either. Volvo replaced the B10BLE with the rather unpopular B7L, which wasn't very successful at all and was axed after only 2 years effectively. I'd take a guess that a commercial decision was taken at the time, based on knowledge they had then, to order the proven Scania L94UB for their full size single deck offering for 2001-2004 deliveries, rather than switching to the unproven B7L with its smaller engine in the same full sized bus. They had been buying B10BLEs so an unproven drop in engine size could have brought some doubts to real world suitability?
Scania replaced the L94UB with the similar K230UB for Euro4, which Wright still built on, but GNE had made the commercial decision to order the Omnicity rather than sticking with the Solar for standardisation.

Apologies for the long and slightly off topic post