(08 Mar 2014, 7:03 pm)tyresmoke wrote There are other sources of revenue, though I would agree none are X93-specific.

The X93 does have some income from council funding for non-commercial trips, although NYCC are cutting this at the end of April. Redcar also fund some diversions into Moorsholm village to enable residents there to have a bus service to Middlesbrough and Guisborough at peak travelling times of the day.

There can be no denying that the operation of the service by the Enviro 400s during summer 2013 has been subject to serious issues and lost mileage has been way too high! The reliability won't help with the passenger experience and therefore there needs to be investment put into the service if we are to improve it in the future.

However there needs to be questions asked when it comes to the engineering ability. After all the same batch of vehicles (7501-4 anyway) operated on the service in summer 2012 season without any major issues, so why was 2013 so bad? Two more were brought in at short notice to try and give a decent vehicle availability for the high peak.

Therefore there has been a push to find an alternative vehicle for the summer 2014 season, with the VDL DB300 (namely 7624) and now the Volvo B7TLs arriving (indeed 7494 [LF02PLJ] is the first to arrive at Redcar) to be trialled on X93 over the next few weeks. I am told there is some pushing from higher up to use them full time on the X93 but if major issues are shown during the operation over the next few weeks then they will have to look at other options.

I have mentioned the Volvo B9TL vehicles at our Yorkshire division, but the same problem exists there in that they are a specific batch of vehicles operating on the 202/203 routes between Leeds, Dewsbury and Huddersfield. Unfortunately even if a trial could be sorted between the two, if they became proven then I am sure any attempt to move some will be highly fought by Yorkshire.

The B9TL is a fantastic vehicle with plenty of power and fairly good reliability. Out of the 67 that GNE have purchased since 2011:-
- One from Washington sent back to Volvo due to fault and has been fine since.
- Very rare breakdowns on the Red Arrows
- Occasional breakdowns on the TTX due to gearing demands because of the route and oil problems but no engine troubles
- The 13 on the TEN had a few electrical faults on launch day and two days later, they were all fixed up and rolled out. Only 1 or 2 breakdowns.
- Out of the 34 that were purchased for the CC and Fab 56, only 1 had a minor breakdown that was fixed swiftly.
- The only common problem with the B9TL or more specifically, the ZF gearbox is the low gear ratios in turn, causing more fuel consumption and more wear and tear but thisbonly prevails when being used on fast dual carriageway and motorway routes such as the TTX. But it hans't been too much of a problem.
- I don't know about that one from Washington that was sent back to Volvo but my knowledge is that there has been no engine trouble with the B9TL engine so far.
- A common issue with all Wrightbuses has been electrical faults but not specifically Volvo related.