(02 Jan 2022, 11:30 pm)Malarkey wrote Give it 18 Months and those E400's won't be on the X9/X10, they'll be on something else. Go North East really need to have vehicles especially designed to take in the capabilities of such a demanding service, i'm sure if they spoke with say Plaxton's they'd be able to come up with a Double Decker Bus that has coaching chassis and gearbox etc, sorry to say but we are not in the age we were 20 Years Ago where a Leyland/Volvo Olympian or an MCW Metrobus had those capabilities. Closest we have had to this is the Volvo B9TL Wright Gemini 2.The E400MMCs are very capable machines and are probably just as stable as the B9TLs and B7TLs previously allocated if not slightly more.
Although Arriva are pushing their luck now going beyond 5 years old (now 7 years), ANE 7529-33 did ok on the X18 for their first 5 years.
GoEY operate E400MMCs on the X46 and Transdev (although I believe they did initially order OM936 StreetDecks) use them on CityZap. Both with ZF gearboxes like 6352-55.