(07 Mar 2014, 5:46 pm)Roland Pratt wrote They 'may' be able to get new buses next year for the X93 depending how it performs this summer?! Charming! I didn't realise they were running that close to the bone! From how they performed LAST summer they'll be lucky to have any customers left. Shouldn't that be factored in when deciding what buses to put on the service?

The X93 is a seasonal service. The revenue it takes presumably cannot be guaranteed every year (it may rain all summer this year and it could be 70% down on last year for example), so an investment would need a couple of good years to be able to to justify itself to Arriva, surely, before new stock is considered?

As far as I know, all local operating companies (ANE, ANE, ATS, AYK etc) all bid to Arriva UKBus for new buses, who then ultimately order in bulk (thus saving significant cash). Therefore, local operating companies don't have a big say in what type of new buses they get, as the order is taken on the whole of the UK and the requirements of the majority.

Example, Arriva UKBus gets 100 bids for new double deck buses from all local operators and 90 of them are for town work. ADL then say to Arriva UKBus that if they order all 100 as E400, they will get a discount of 10% say. Of course I can't see the top managers at UKBus saying that they cant agree that significant saving, because they need 10 buses for one route to be different and dictate the entire order. Its just not going to happen.

On that basis, there may be people at ANE who would love to get some B9's for the X18, X93 and so on, but the parent company is saying that ordering more E400's is a better option for the whole of the UK considered and ANE have no option but to go with it. However, may people on here still slate the decisions without actually thinking about who is actually making them.