(08 Feb 2015, 6:37 pm)aureolin wrote Maybe newer, but if you were offered a brand new Ford Fiesta over a 1-3 year old BMW 5 series, you'd take the 5 series every day of the week. The Citaro, in my opinion, is far superior to any other vehicle in any of the big three's fleets. Passenger comfort and ride quality, rather than the technical side!
I agree that the 2/2A is propping the 42 up, and it'd be interesting to see if it's causing reliability issues. I don't use it enough these days to properly comment, but my personal experience so far is that the reliability seems to have become worse. Had two 2As appear in the space of 5 minutes last week, and the two I've used this weekend have been 5 minutes, and 8 minutes late respectively. Not great loads on them either.
Whilst I do love the analogy and completely understand where you're coming from (also sharing the same opinion that the Citaro is by far the best single decker vehicle operated out of the North East), I think it will work differently with buses, given their huge cost and how the company will pay back the money over time before making a profit out of each vehicle.
Like you, I can't comment on the reliability of the revised 2/2A services as I don't live over that way any more. I know both routes were pretty reliable before (outside of peak times where Chester Road is a nightmare), so can't imagine there should be too much of an issue now? There are two sets of temporary traffic lights on the route of the 2 at the moment - one at Lambton, and the other near the Station Road low bridge).