(04 Oct 2021, 10:25 pm)Storx wrote Not sure on the OTY batch at Blyth like they we're bloody awful. You couldn't sit on the seats near the windows splits when it was raining from water pouring in and they used to absolutely stink of damp. Horrid buses by the end and some of them were with withdrawn early at 13 year old, shocking build quality. The Gemini's and Pulsar's are much better built machines imo and will last awhile yet. The Commanders lasted 18 year without any real bother and could've easily lived on in service.

Can't argue against the Olympians though but they we're seriously outdated by the end especially on the X21/X22, that said I wouldn't purchase new buses for it though and would focus personally on the likes of the X66/X67, X26/X27 which are crying for investment and the X15/X18 due to the problem's with reliability.

It's the Solo's which need replacing imo as they're life expired pretty much now (usually 12 year for a minibus) and they're falling apart some of them, 2809 in particular for being extremely unreliable (potentially the worst bus in the North East).