I do think it's a shame that manufacturers are moving away from heavyweight vehicles which are more suited to long and demanding service work, but I can also understand that it's perhaps difficult for manufacturers to provide products for the minority. After all, the manufacturers have to make a sufficient amount of profit to make designing and making these buses viable!
More and more operators are looking for ways to invest into new vehicles whilst also cutting costs. In the past, operators have had the ability to make choices... One option operators have had is to invest in lightweight vehicles with good fuel economy as a method of cost-cutting. Another is to reduce the frequency of a service when investing in heavyweight vehicles, meaning fewer are required. Customers would perceive the investment into buses as a bad thing if operators always went with the latter option, which is why I think many operators have opted for the former option. As the majority of operators have done this, they're now very limited in
what they can do, as manufacturers are making buses to cater for the needs of the majority.
I'm guessing Go North East will be no different to the majority of other bus operators: fuel economy will be the deciding factor when deciding which manufacturer to go for.
RE: 2014 GNE Bus Order Predictions