(21 Feb 2022, 12:47 am)mb134 wrote 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.

But why did Arriva originally move away from Voith to ZF instead of going for Voith in the classic E400s? Obviously enhanced BSOG made the decision quite easy for the case of going down the Voith S/S route for the E400MMC.

Obviously I'm not saying Voith gearboxes are bad as they've been used in various 'tanks' including DAF/VDL DB250s and of course the OM936 StreetDeck. But the Cummins 6.7l engine coupled with the ZF Ecolife is a better combination flat out.

GNE tried the E400MMC City with a Voith gearbox and S/S on the X9/X10 back in 2016 and then ended up opting for B5TLs in 2016 due to the fact they trusted and knew Volvo products. But I'm sure if the E400MMC with ZF and S/S was available at the time with the incentive over the B5TL (enhanced BSOG) to take a risk with a different product, perhaps they would've done.