(04 Oct 2021, 10:25 pm)Storx wrote Can't argue against the Olympians though but they we're seriously outdated by the end especially on the X21/X22, that said I wouldn't purchase new buses for it though and would focus personally on the likes of the X66/X67, X26/X27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).

Think the Omnis based at Darlington could be gone by end of this year/start of next once the 3 ex Tiger OmniLinks land (one snapped with it's new paint job today so shouldn't be long) and think most of the remainder will go once the refurbishment of the gas buses at Darlington is complete.

Solos is an interesting one because of CAZ, can't seem them paying to convert what will be 14 year old life expired Solos for it, not convinced even transferring Darlington's 11 year old Solos would be worth it either and likely will depend whatever else happens to services, think frequency cuts with larger buses like what's happened with the 1 & 2 already is possible again.

A decker order, ideally for X15/X18 would probs be enough to sort out the worst of our problems, just really the 20 year year B7TLs that are an issue and even then depends how you look at it as to whether it's a major issue or not, maybe another Northumberland route if they're willing to splash the cash but I doubt it. I can't much major investment really occurring until about 2024 when the oldest Pulsars and VDL Geminis hit 15 years of age.