(19 Jul 2020, 3:38 pm)Storx wrote But is the X1 losing customers? It's not so why buy the new buses for them - 8 years isn't long at all. The 26/27 which they're getting dumped on haven't had new buses since god knows when - I really don't know. Anyone answer this? Why not give the X1 buses a decent mid-life refurb (so they're as new) and instead give the 26/27 some love instead for a change. Now all your doing is giving the X1 new buses which it doesn't really need (people would appreciate the mid life refurb as much) and the 26/27 are getting the, oh look the X1 has new buses AGAIN and we're getting the old buses dumped on us. It's the same with the 6 and 25. They're almost ignored lately and it's a creating a bad core and non-core services with GNE and the non-core services are a mess. This isn't just GNE; Arriva used to be bad for it aswell but not as much lately they've seemed to moved to a buy new buses and keep them on there until their dead approach which I prefer. You don't hear anyone complaining about the 'old' 59 plates at Blyth as they were there from new.

Have a flagship route in timetables and ticketing but it doesn't mean they need new buses all the time.

Perhaps it's not as profitable running along the metro route as the X1 is, single decks have been allocated for years with frequency fluctuating between 10 to 15mins. My point is the contract tied with the 921 required low floor DD, therefore the money paid to GNE for the contract was in part used to upgrade half the allocation.

For the 25, only running every 30mins, it's hardly profit making. The 6 was upgraded from B10s, to citaros, again not a main profitable route as opposed to other routes. If your going to purchase new buses, you do so to maintain and attract passengers on profitable routes. Sticking new buses on the 25, wont have the same financial benefits as those on core profit making routes....you could argue the X84/X85 has never had new buses, allocation of used casded L94 to cascaded citaros. New buses, regardless of where they are allocated, helps to upgrade other routes by removing the oldest vehicles, so your still getting a better service than previous