Just my two-penneth with the vehicles and spec.
When someone buys a car, they have a choice of vehicles, with different specifications and different manufacturers.
They choose the one, which will hopefully be suitable and meet the requirements.
Engine, the size of the engine, performance etc will be taken in to account.
How many drivers, doing heavy mileage on the Motorway, will buy an underpowered car? How many of those underpowered cars would last, being driven into the ground day in, day out?
Obviously the passenger transport market is a lot smaller.
Takeovers and bankruptcies have seen to that.
Either way, (speaking the obvious here) bus operators need to find a vehicle which suits the demands of the route.
It is highly unlikely we would see a lightweight citybus allocated onto the 78 or 28. Just as it is unlikely I would buy a 1l Micra to use for business.
So why is it, we see an underpowered urban bus, allocated to the x9/10?
If those vehicles last the period specified by Dan, I will eat hay with a donkey.
I have already said elsewhere, that there is scope to grow the service - either by GNE or another operator.
Cascaded Stagecoach coaches from Scotland perhaps? I am sure residents of Billingham, Hartlepool, Stockton and Middlesbrough would appreciate a through ticket from their estates. A lot cheaper than buying tickets for two operators - with the added bonus of the vehicle turning up, offering the promised perks too.
RE: 2014 GNE Bus Order Predictions
'Illegitimis non carborundum'