(12 Sep 2020, 6:58 pm)Storx wrote You keep forgetting that there's no-where for the Streetdecks to go, you can just go replacing the B9TL's which have at least 7 year left in them for the sake of it. There's literally about 100 single deckers and minibuses which more urgently need replacing especially the Mercedes and Omnicities (which can only be replaced by new vehicles on the 5/50) and are already nearly life expired. That's before we even start discussing the Euro Mods which they've had from their respective councils which will have terms behind them.
Also there's Streetdecks/B5TL's (they're similar) running on numerous Transdev routes such as the 36 and the Coaster routes which are a hell of a lot more harder work than the X1.
Just to add the coaches aren't new (2015 plates from Oxford) nor were the B10BLE's (ex. Arriva Scotland West). It wouldn't be a surprise to me if we don't see a new decker with GNE until at least 2025 imo bar ex London or elsewhere stock to see off the Omnidekkas in a similar way there wasn't any between 2005 and 2010 (deckers have a 15 year shelf life).
Assuming the economy and passenger numbers improve, I personally think they'll start looking at upgrading the whole X-Lines fleet again in around 5 years time.
By that point the B9s will be nearing the end of their life, and in order to keep the X-Lines network as 'premium', I suspect they may want to upgrade those and cascade the still relatively new StreetDecks and E400s to the likes of Cobalts, TVT and 56.
As for routes with single deckers, I think we'll continue to see a move away from them, like we've seen with the Crusader, X84/X85, and potentially still the 93/94.
With the Minibuses, it'd be a like-for-like replacement really, unless they move to the short E200s or StreetLites from the Solos, which we could possibly see for standardisation.