(Yesterday, 2:41 pm)NorthEastern wrote I’ve notice in Alnwick recently that a lot of the X15, X18 and X20 that used to always be deckers on SK72 plates are now a right mixture of ages and single/doubles including (amusingly) the purple Pulsar with Airlink branding, seen on the X20.
Is this due to breakdowns and loans to other depots? It used to be a smart Arriva fleet in Alnwick but now not so much.
This has become a more regular thing since the X16 and 777 services were added into the mix with the Alnwick routes. X14/15/16/18 and 777 now all interwork. The X16 and 777 used to be seperate, and would usually use the Pulsars or Streetlite. Also since they made the X30 an all day route, X20 and X30 interwork so that ups the requirement again.
There is not enough of the 72 plate deckers for all of this now, especially as Whitby have some that were originally at Ashington 7578 - 81 (78 just there on loan currently). Also the 17 plate reliability seems to have dropped lately for some unknown reason, maybe as they are leaving Ashington soon.
Hopefully new deckers this year will sort all this out so with 26 plate and 72 plate there will be enough to go round as single deckers won't cut it on those routes in Summer peak season.