(02 Oct 2022, 11:32 am)F114TML wrote Compare those StreetLites (which I think is what you refer to) to the gas buses though. From nearly new the SLs have felt like they were tied together with string. I'm not going to sit here and say the gas buses are perfect - they aren't and some definitely show their age, and let's be honest a lot of the rest of the fleet is a bit meh at best, however from my own experience and speaking to others, SC Sunderland has a better fleet than GNE Deptford and Arriva Durham, even if GNE and Arriva have higher spec buses.
There's only 9 Streetlite's though at Durham... The rest of the singles are proper Enviro 200's not the MAN junk or Pulsars which are far superior than anything ADL and Arriva Durham is the worst fleet out the lot aswell. The only really old buses at Durham are the Solo's and 8 or so B7's which are decent buses anyway, the send me down Enviro 400's are only a couple year newer at Sunderland and are worse vehicles.
Stagecoach's fleet is poor across the North East they just seem to avoid criticism on here for some reason, they're only company which still has Darts in service even Arriva has got shot of them after having nearly, if not, a 100 of the things. They have numerous 58 plate and older Enviro's on flagship routes like the 1, there's still ALX 400's in frontline service which are being shifted around to avoid the LEZ, credit to Arriva for buying new buses instead of doing that.
I actually don't think it's unfair they bring it up personally. The MAN Enviro 200's really are junk and there's 17 of the things there and they're doing everything not to replace them or getting more junk from other areas instead.