(27 Dec 2020, 2:12 am)6049 wrote 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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The cost and complications of completing the conversions for GNW two years (and however many additional miles on the clock) after GNE decided not to, would lead me to believe it is worth doing.
The donor Omnis appeared after the native ones received the upgrade or at least once the funding bid for the conversions had been found to be successful.
If the bid wasn't successful, I'd hazard a guess that the donors wouldn't have appeared.