(16 Nov 2025, 12:18 pm)L469 YVK wrote Thinking about GNE's native B9TLs......they've done a similar length of time on primarily 'frontline' work in comparison to the original Go Coastline S*** FVK/OFT and Northumbria P*** CCU Palatines.......which is pretty good and some examples especially the 56 & Cobalts still have plenty of useful life left in them - some examples that haven't been constantly ragged along the Tyne Valley or up / down the A19 could easily do 15-20 years frontline work without too many major issues.

IMO - the 56 would be a better candidate for future EV bids rather than 5 year old StreetDecks.

The ideal routes for cascading mid-life StreetDecks down are the 51/52/93/94, 27, 57, 307/309.

I was chatting with a Percy Main driver and their preference would be for the Cobalt B9TLs to do the 301 with the StreetDecks used on the 307/309 instead - given the length of the 301 and the hilly terrain on the Western part of the route too.

Literally couldn't have put that any better myseld

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(16 Nov 2025, 6:09 pm)morritt89 wrote As someone who has driven Streetdecks and B9's (native and otherwise), Streetdecks seem more suited to local start stop work which I would argue the 56 sort of is as there is no real high speed non stop running sections. The B9's when allocated to my scholars work often used to overheat after the high speed non stop running (the Voyager ones however seemed to be ok). I would say, as a driver, that Arrivas DB3000 Geminis are a nicer drive and a lot smoother than a Streetdeck though.

Overall, a B9 you have a big engine with a fair amount of grunt not doing very much whereas the current Streetdeck is a small engine working very hard. I would say that the newer Streetdeck with the new engine has scope to be a significant improvement on the original version.

I agree with what your saying but the 56does need quite a bit of poke its really busy times are pretty tight and they cope well . The 56 is a pretty main stream route and the street decks like street lites are more suited (.as the name) to work that is round the streets for me but I do appreciate that opinion is divided which is fair enough. I was looking the other day and every single 56 B9 was on the road which cant often be said about other models

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