(30 Jan 2021, 10:07 pm)Jimmi wrote These things just happen at times even after being worked on, one thing I don't think that helps is they can't ease them back into service by putting them on the 35 for a day or two as the 35 is stuck with a permanent allocation of unreliable sheds like 7445/6.

Investment is certainly needed up there now as the buses are showing their age now especially on the demanding X routes up and down the A1, Solos seem to be struggling now too and then there's the MPDs which must be getting on for doing 3 times more miles than they were intended to do.

There was suggestions of new deckers being on order for the X15/X18 and I think the X14 too but no clue what the deal is with this, speculation started around the time covid appeared then went quiet assuming the order had been cancelled, rumours started appearing again around the autumn time and shortly after it was alleged that they were being diverted to Leicester due to Euro 6 CAZ stuff there after the attempt to transfer E400MMCs from Southend was blocked from happening however I think they've since gotten round this by transferring B9s from Yorkshire which had been converted for the Leeds CAZ which has since been scrapped, so now the rumours are they're destined for the North East again.  Just speculation so all this may or may not be the case.

Agreed, though with 7525 it's the third time in 8 days it has failed (first time was last Friday on the X18 at Acklington). Obviously stuff can go bang at any time, I think anyone would be understanding of one off occurrences - but again it seems to be a common theme of them fixing something and it failing again shortly afterwards. On your point about 7445/6 I find it amazing that the 19 year old 7484, with its time in London and on the X93, is in better nick than both of them - especially 7445 (the less said about that heap the better). 7514 also looks to have failed yesterday on the X18 south of Seahouses.

Regarding the new vehicles, if I remember rightly the rumour was 12x E400 MMCs for the X14/5/8 which neatly ties into the combined PVR. I'd assume that the plan would be to keep 7529-33/7553-6 as the allocation for the X20, moving 7511/2/4-7 and 4653/9/64 to less demanding work.