(26 Dec 2020, 9:12 pm)Andreos1 wrote 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.

Could it not also be the case that to go with a new supplier for emission kits could have proved more expensive as it could be a more complicated system on the Mercs than it was on the Scania's? Not to mention that if the Mercs were to be upgraded to Euro VI, and then cascaded onto the 5/50; there would be a delay in that you would have to wait for the new buses to be delivered to displace the Red Arrow B9s. This delay would have been about a year if I remember rightly as I think it was last summer that the Omnicities were made up to Euro VI.

On top of this, GNE are blessed with quite a sizeable reserve of spare Omnicities that can be cannibalised for parts and the in service ones are concentrated at one depot predominantly. They bought a load of scrap ones a year or two ago so it makes sense having made that "investment" to use it to keep the current fleet going and get as much use out of them as they can before they go to meet the scrapyard.



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