(23 Jan 2026, 1:46 pm)Kuyoyo wrote I also have been told why the new E400MMCs for Ashington are intended to replace 7541-52 - those have smaller fuel tanks than the newer examples, which means they have issues when being used on certain Morpeth Express boards as a result (not due to the fuel tank but Stockton once had something similar happening when 1512 was based at the depot as the Sapphire spare - it almost always ended up on the same board, which happened to be the first bus out of the depot and the last bus into the depot, and was known to be running on fumes when it got back in).
Genuinely mental reasoning. They’re capable of doing most X18 boards, it was only ever the couple of double Berwick X15 boards that they (occasionally) got swapped off.
Even outside of those, there are 6 X20 boards and 20 X21/35 and X22 boards they could be used on. A batch of 12 buses, 26 boards which they are completely suitable for.
Crucially, they’re all more than capable of actually doing the express work - the 8 Streetlites, 09/10/61-plate Pulsars, and the 14/64/15-plate E400s are not.
Moving an entire batch of buses away because of (at most) a couple of boards which they ‘may’ struggle with is completely illogical - especially when there are far, far larger issues.