(19 Jul 2020, 8:00 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Yeah, you never know what's going to turn up on the Arriva 6, could literally be anything! 

Honestly, you rarely see GNE run vehicles with the wrong branding, if one of the branded vehicles isn't running, most of the time it's a corporate liveried one of an equivalent spec.
Then again not that long back I seemed to get more OmniDekkas than StreetDecks on the X21!

The average passenger isn't as enthusiastic as you and is probably happy the bus has shown up. Many a time I have had a Cathedral Solo turn up for my X45 in Newcastle during Rush-Hour and it's not to slate GNE but let's not be biased. 

In reference to your earlier post, the B7TL is still a decent bus, well the Wright bodied examples are. Arriva in London have lost far more contracts which affect the cascading of old stock to the provinces, whilst GAL, on the other hand, has gained many of Arriva London's contracts meaning they have fewer buses to cascade. Go-Ahead also lease their buses in London whilst Arriva outright own them. It makes sense to send them to the provinces to make the most money out of them while they can. Saying that following the latest round of tenders and Tfl's ever-changing commitments I'd expect more DB300s to head up North within the next 2 years to oust out any B7TLs.  They're not shiny and sparkling but for the most part, the buses still run on time. 

That awful new group livery shows that Arriva are not interested in providing an exhilarating bus ride but rather a reliable one that is cost-efficient.