(5 hours ago)PH - BQA wrote To be fair, if looked after properly, they're absolutely fine to be making up the numbers on the X21/22 and X10/11. 7530 is the main issue out of those, an absolute shed. 

Realistically, if Ashington have 19x new E400s and the 15x 72-plates then that covers all X18/20 boards with 12 to spare. If the B9s are on the 35, then you'd only have to wheel out 4 E400s per day for the X21/22 should all MMCs be available. 

On your earlier Blyth comment, I'm wondering if the 59-plate DB300s are now somewhat tactically being retained given GNEs Coast Road agreement withdrawal. Make Blyth fully decker, and keep a small surplus should a PVR increase be on the cards? Then replace the DB300s wholesale once they know the score.

To be honest, kind of want to think Blyth has been robbed to bail out Ashington and there's a side of me that now thinks some of the 72 Plates might be leaving Ashington to Blyth so you'd end up with something like:

X16/777 - Out of the X14/X15/X18 interworking - Pulsar
X14/X15/X18/X20 - New 19x E400MMC, co-incidence or not?
35 - B9TL
X21/X22 - 14x E400, 2x 72 Plate E400 MMC
Spares - 5x 72 Plate E400MMC

306/308 - New 6x E400MMC + 8x 72 Plate E400MMC
X7/X8/X9/X10/X11 - 23x DB300
Spares - 8x DB300

The 19 is too much of a co-incidence, why would you not just send them all otherwise and complete the allocation? Doesn't really make sense to send 6 random buses to Blyth either unless you top it up and fill at least a route PVR on paper and if they're sending E400's instead why not bother just sending the lot and make Ashington and Blyth E400/E400MMC free respectively?

If there's an electric decker which is capable of doing the Blyth work, I wouldn't be surprised to see the depot go fully electric either with those 14 E400MMC's going back to Ashington replacing the 14x E400's off the X21/X22, the best going onto the 35, and the worst going into Blyth reserve. That's Ashington and Blyth expresswise dealt with until around 2036 realistically - ignoring franchising.