Looking at Bustimes, 3051 has broke down AGAIN! This must be one of the worst vehicles Arriva Ashington have had. I do get it on the 57 quite a bit and sure it's quite comfortable but I dread it as you just can't be sure you'll complete the journey. I regret complaining about 2601 - 3 now, they were actually reliable and although they were too small, I think there has been an increase in missing trips since they left.
I don't know exactly what Darlington use 3053 on, but if that was off road could it be covered by an Enviro 200MMC? If so maybe worth swapping 3053 and 51 as when Ashington don't have this available it means either a double decker on the 434, when the deckers could be much more useful elsewhere, or they have to draft something in like they did this weekend for the 415. 3052 seems ok to be fair, but you can't expect a 12+ year old bus to be always available. Ashington have enough really poor vehicles to maintain without 3051 so getting rid would be useful if they could.
I wonder what they would do if 3051 was the only one available at the start of the 415 and so they used it and then it broke down, they would have no cover. This weekend they seemed to know in advance it would not be available so 3053 was brought in.
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet