(4 hours ago)PH - BQA wrote 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.