(4 hours ago)Storx wrote Yeah no arguments about reliability but I suppose if they actually had some training how to deal with them, maybe they might work? It's a weird one as they used to be alright at Jesmond but since ending up at Ashington they've turned to crap. Then again those 4 58 Plate E400's which I said would be a nightmare at Blyth have been a rock there aswell, so maybe it's not the buses...

Fair on the 415/460, thought they might have been able to scrape through with those Streetlite's since their shorter and there's Decker's on quite regularly - think they're both 10.8m. Struggling to see where the real issue is though, can't think of any areas where they couldn't get round?

Mind I'm surprised they don't just give up the contract when it runs out, I respect it's money but surely having a microfleet of vehicles for 1 bus now isn't viable, or at least worth it?

They weren't great at Jesmond either, but they were also much younger then - and being used on the 52 etc. rather than X16s. It's also not like Ashington had never seen a Streetlite before, they had 1579-81 from new. 

7557 was just off for 3 months with engine trouble, but otherwise they seem about as reliable as they were at Ashington. 7562, from memory, did a fair number of X14/15s when based there and was pretty capable. Ultimately they're 17 year old buses and should be scrapped imminently. 

My thoughts on the Ashington engineering situation is well documented at this point, and it was posted on here yesterday that senior staff have left the business, so it is clear that there are issues. That said, it is also clear that some of the buses are knackered at this point and badly need replacing, or allocated more appropriately. If the Streetlites were used on the 1/2 for example, like they should be, then there'd likely be fewer issues. 

For the 415/460, unsure where the issue is but it was evidently enough of a one to result in them never being operated by anything else. Even to the point of sending deckers on the 434 so that a Solo can go onto the 415/460. My guess would be out of Felton, likely due to parked cars.