(05 May 2026, 5:11 pm)PH - BQA wrote Stagecoach have theirs in service now (have done since 2025...) from funding awarded at a similar/the same time. 

Arriva NE management have a track record of shocking project management, so until they deliver literally anything to time and executed well I find it very hard to believe that they couldn't have done anything quicker with this. 


Were the 43/44/45 vehicles not funded by the Levelling Up fund, with funding awarded in 2023? (https://northeastbuses.co.uk/showthread....#pid317459) 

Either way, vehicles funded around a similar time are very much in service now. There's a post in the old thread indicating plans were only submitted for depot work at the end of March last year - after the buses were reportedly ordered.

It was levelling up fund money that Arriva got for the 43/44/45. If you look through when the funding was released, it was later for Arriva than it was for Stagecoach. It also took longer for Northumberland County Council to deal with planning approval. I know people like to find ways to take digs at Arriva, and quite often they are valid criticisms. But on this issue, when you look through the processes I think it would have been hard to do anything different unless they'd started the work before funding was approved, which would have been stupid.