(20 Feb 2022, 11:22 pm)L469 YVK wrote Funnily enough, Voiths would be ideal for the exact routes (bar the X10) that GNE use their E400MMCs on for the likes of Lobley Hill Bank, Dunston Bank, parts of Derwentside etc. Likewise, Stagecoach use them as they're off the mark around the doors. Flat out though, ZF is a better performer.

Arriva with their Dennis Tridents/E400/E400MMC went:

- Dennis Trident ALX400 - Voith
- Enviro 400 Classic - ZF
- Enviro 400 MMC - Voith

Do you have much experience driving the Voith equipped MMCs that Arriva have? Drivers I've talked to at Ashington much prefer the MMCs with their Voith boxes on express work to pretty much anything else. Ultimately, they hold 60 on long dual carriageway stretches (i.e A1 Gosforth to Clifton, or A189 Moor Farm to North Seaton) more than comfortably, and it never sounds as if the engine is too strained.

Mechanically those MMCs are rock solid too, so unless there's a substantial cost difference or something along those lines, I don't see why they'd switch away from a reliable setup.