(31 Dec 2014, 10:15 am)gtom wrote More likely too unreliable than slow but the 27 is hardly an easy going route.Honestly, We've gone over this 101 times with other vehicles in the fleet...
But saying that, the 21 is due its usual management cock up downgrade.
Regularly seeing red spares on a route is not due to the fact that the branded allocation are unreliable. It's just a misconception due to the fact there are no branded spare vehicles. Matters will be made worse for the "Prince Bishops" services next month, when they cover a PVR of 20 with no branded spares...
I agree that the Volvo Hybrids may have been 'too slow' to stick to the timetable Go North East had for the 21 originally, but that's the reason why the timetables changed and the PVR increased by 2 vehicles (and hence now uses the two Volvo B7s - which were originally spares). To clear this up, the Angel B5s are staying where they are (for the next few years at least).