(11 Nov 2014, 5:53 pm)tyresmoke wrote Perhaps they should have swapped some Darts with B10BLE's from Stockton or Redcar, they could handle the X66 day in day out no problem.

I agree about the B10BLE's, however, I'd like to put my point across. The R-COO Darts are, for the most part, in better nick than the S-KHN ones, and definitely better than the X-GGO ones. 1649 is lovely to drive, doesn't rattle very much (considering its age) and still goes ok, although it can be a bit breathless at the top end. They would cope fine enough on the 5/5A, although the 1 might be a stretch. The only thing is, the RTC's only give 6 mins to get from Bishop bus station to Cabin Gate (impossible most days) but Pulsars can normally catch this up, the Darts might struggle.
With clever driving, the Prestiges could get a wheelchair on, as they do lower, and I think the passengers would much prefer a bus that can actually climb hills, unlike the woeful GGO batch. As for the X66's, two failures on S-KHN Darts yesterday has probably swayed the decision for using Pulsars, however I do think using one on the 75/76's when a Solo normally copes well enough is a strange one.
I'm trying to keep up with the ins and outs at Darlington but as the stock changes almost daily, it's almost impossible!
Oh, I'm driving the 1/5's and 8's tomorrow so all my opinions could change lol!