(1 hour ago)L469 YVK wrote Is today's problem that operators are expecting the same output and utilisation of more modern and complicated vehicles, as what they did with Leyland and Volvo Olympians which were a piece of p*** mechanically?
GNE back in the golden era purchased 1 spare vehicle for every 7-8 new ones purchased. Arguably a bit overkill, but things were reliable and GNE could do more 'preventative' maintenance rather than reactive.
For Arriva's Northumberland Network especially Ashington & Alnwick outstations, there should be 1x spare vehicle purchased for every 7-8x new vehicles purchased.
The oldest decker Ashington have (excluding the sheds they have on loan from Blyth) is 12 years old. There's absolutely no reason they should be unreliable as they are, the reason for the unreliability is poor maintenance and incompetent fleet planning.
Plenty of other companies use older vehicles (E400s, in many cases) on far more intense work than the X21/22, yet things like 7530 and 7554 can't even complete a day on there.
Put it this way, 7514-7 were widely considered to be dogs by the end of their time at Ashington. They were 13 years old and still, just about, putting in 6 days a week on Alnwick services by the time the 72-plate batch of MMCs replaced them. Compare them to how 7526-33 and 7553/4 are now, there has clearly been a significant reduction in competence at that depot over recent years. 7526-33 and 7553/4 have been shocking for about 3 years now, some of them with significant spells of not even being in service let alone sent to Alnwick/Berwick every day, and are all still younger than the 09-plates were when they left.