(4 hours ago)Shrek wrote I was told at the time they won the Levelling Up funding for these that the criteria was quite strict and the reason the 43/44/45 were chosen was because they cover three local authorities in Newcastle, North Tyneside and Northumberland. Apparently there is expectation that they should spend the majority of their miles on those routes for a set amount of time, but interworking patterns wouldn't cause any issues.

I am quite glad about this as these rules will at least stop Arriva from moving them elsewhere and putting older stuff on instead, like they did with the Enviro 200 MMC's from Ashington in 2022. These criteria will keep them where they are which is reassuring!

I know it is not just Arriva that have a habit of that type of thing. I know Go North East did it too with the 17 plate Streetlites on the 2 in Sunderland with those routes having gone from Versa's, then back to Versas again.