(06 Apr 2013, 5:18 pm)Daniel wrote

(06 Apr 2013, 5:05 pm)tyresmoke wrote There's hundreds of reasons why vehicles may be off the road other than requiring repair! Exams have to be done (by law) every 28 days which means everything has to be checked similar to an MOT test, this would take a full day if not more (for prep) so this is why 3963 was painted up as a branded spare.
I'm not denying there are issues with B9s (had one that cut out on the A19 a few weeks ago with steam coming out of the back...) but they're infinitely more reliable than the old B7s were... I'm sure they'll continue to be more reliable when they reach the same age too, albeit obviously not as reliable as they are when brand new.

The coaches were removed from the X9 because of extensive complaints from passengers over the steps, plus of course they weren't wheelchair accessible.
I was one who wanted to see something better than a standard bus on the X9/X10 but there aren't many coaches that meet the same capacity. If you were to use a standard size coach you would have to operate double the mileage by increasing the frequencies to match capacity, which of course involves double the investment not to mention other increased costs (drivers etc).

Undeniable, yes - but this happens so much more than every 28 days. Obviously one day per vehicle, but it happens more than that too!

The B7s were bad, yeah. Still are. I agree with you completely when you say that the B9 will always be much more reliable than the B7 - no matter how old they get, but it goes without saying that they do face regular issues, and this shouldn't happen.

It's not so much the seating capacity Go North East have to worry about though. As one of many examples, on the first day (and the forthcoming days afterwards) of the X7 service, passenger numbers were higher on the X7 than on the X9/X10 on every example I was on. It definitely is wheelchair access, as I said. Reliability is also something which should be an utmost concern of GNE's. Cost-effectiveness too.

The X10 had about 5 passengers on between Stockton and Middlesbrough, having had 2 people depart on one occasion on a Saturday afternoon... A coach definitely wouldn't struggle with that.

I was told by the late Peter Huntley on OpenLine that the coaches were removed from X9 because it was "unacceptable to regularly have standing passengers on the A19". Apparently at this time, there had been a plan for a cascade of low floor deckers to Deptford, but these had to be utilised on X9 instead.

I think as with a lot of services, there'll be drops in passenger numbers at certain times of the day on certain trips etc.

I've yet to travel on the X7, so I can't comment on vehicle reliability personally but I have seen one or two posts on Facebook about buses not showing up because they've broken down. I've always had an appreciation of Volvo, but these buses have seen some fair mileage during their time with GNE, most recently being branded for the Diamond and Crusader routes. I don't think it would be worthwhile allocating different buses to X7 at this early stage. I'm sure GNE would want to see good patronage growth before any significant investment. As often as the breakdowns allegedly occur, I don't think it would cause potential passengers to want to make permanent alternative arrangements with another operator "just in case the bus doesn't turn up". I don't think people could be that pessimistic - so I don't think it will have a negative impact on prospective growth. Having mercs on the brand new X3 didn't seem to have the effect that was hoped, so by starting "low" and attracting growth by the number of unique new links that X7 provides - a plan can hopefully be put in place to introduce better buses at some point in the future.