(26 Dec 2020, 8:06 pm)Storx wrote Surely it's due to there being no Citaros in S. Tyneside who gave the funds for the mods other than the 9 which has been upgraded anyway. There'd be a lot more moaning if they intentially sent Citaros or the 09 Versas for the 5/50 just to get Euro 6 mods (and deservably so aswell) as stupid as it was to do them mind but they'd be wasted on the Stagecoach locals routes and after that there's not much left. Believe the E's and X34 are done and the 26/27 are definitely done.

I'm still curious whether we might see Black Cat Streetlites leaving Deptford as the 12/57 still need to be done and there's nothing realistically left now to replace them otherwise they're going to be in the same position soon up here.

There was a boat load of funding over a period of time (https://northeastca.gov.uk/news/200-buse...emissions/) and the Mercs could have been included within any of the NECA funding bids.
S Tyneside just happened to be the one which the Scania's were successful.

If an alternative supplier was looked at, rather than ignored on the basis of 'standardisation', it may have been the newer, refurbished higher spec Mercs which were included in a bid.
It may have even been cheaper for the taxpayer... 

I'd love to know who was supplying the original emissions upgrades for GNW (and First in the past) and whether or not they're using a new supplier for the Mercs. To hark back a long forgotten phrase from here, the irony could be delicious.