(09 Mar 2021, 11:36 pm)Storx wrote It's all I can think of tbh, and those from Pegswood it's probably just as quick to hop on the 35 and change to the X15 anyway. Guessing it's from legacy routes of the 420/20 terminating at Ashington.
Oh definitely, I just meant to have the newer ones ones on the X15 as it's the hardest route. Then have the 14 plates on the the other routes. Heck if you terminated the X18 at Alnwick, you could probably get away with having singles on if your trying to push more people onto the X20.
I think my suggestion, vehicle wise, for the Alnwick/Thropton routes would be something along the lines of the following:
X14: Heavy duty single decks (i.e B8RLE, new WrightBus integral single deck, 6-cyl E200 MMC)
X15: E400 MMCs. Preferably Scania powered, though new Cummins powered ones will be more than fine if ZF coupled.
X16: Heavy duty single decks (same as X14)
X18: E400 MMCs, again preferably Scania.
X20: E400 MMCs.
You'd have to sort out the scholars board that one of the X14 boards does in the afternoon, but I'm sure you could find something somewhere for that. Generally the X14 is absolutely fine with single decks, as is the X16. If you get heavy duty stuff it offers more flexibility if you need to quickly sling one onto the X15 due to late running or a failure - Streetlites on the X15 are horrendous. As part of this you'd also move the X16 across to Ashington, again to improve operational flexibility as well as cutting dead mileage.