(03 Aug 2022, 6:15 am)L469 YVK wrote Ashington other than maybe 3x as spares, will lose the majority of their 'Classic E400MMC'.
But likelihood is the newer ones would get allocated to the X14/X15/X18/X20 due to the increased demands. Also, if these have ZF gearboxes as opposed to Voith (Arriva have chopped and changed in the past such as with B7TLS), then they'd be best suited to those routes anyways.
They'll realistically need to be keeping a few more than 3.
Current decker PVRs are:
X14 - 3
X15 - 4
X18 - 5
X20 - 2
X21/22 - 15
35 - 5
Total: 34
Exclude 12 on the X21/22 for the current MMCs, leaves you with 22 boards to cover with the 19 new vehicles. You still need spare deckers, so realistically you need 5-6 current E400s staying if the spare current percentages of the other vehicle types stay the same.