(20 Feb 2015, 7:47 pm)Dan wrote I'd never used the Whitby town services before, and I hadn't been on one of Arriva's ex-London mini-ALX200s either, so this combo was great. The ALX200 was in marvellous condition and it was incredibly quick off the mark - sadly I can't provide as great a review for 2827, but what can I say, it's a Solo! There was a smell of burning plastic on 1567, but I must say it performed very well and I was surprised to say the least. They've been set up great and manage hills quite well indeed. The gear changes are far smoother than they are on Durham's examples, so hopefully they'll get round to doing those at some point too. I wasn't a fan of Percy Main's dual door Volvo B10BLE this morning but I was reminded that it certainly isn't the worst Volvo B10BLE in the North East after I had 4512 for more than ten minutes! Of course, the journey was made worse by the passengers on-board, and you can read more about that in the "What's annyoing you today?" thread! I'd never been on a Temsa Avenue before, and as they have quite a bad reputation, Scott thought it would be a good idea for me to ride one so I can form my own judgement on them! Whilst the seating was far from ideal, I loved the amount of power they had. Glad it was just a fairly short journey though, as my arse was a bit numb by the end... Heating was spot on on 5336 - standard of a Merc. Decided to get 4991 home instead of 4912, adding a bit more variety.
I actually think the Tesmas are alright buses, it's just the seats that let them down and they have performed well when I've had them on the X93 and other routes in the Redcar area.
At least apart from bad bus passengers you both seemed to have a good day.
Hoping to venture round more of Teesside in the summer, tomorrow I've decided I can't face the thought of going all the way up to Newcastle again especially with roadworks on the 7 route so instead I'm doing a Teesside trip where I plan to take in Darlington, Stockton, Middlesbrough, Redcar, Saltburn and Guisborough, hopefully it will be a decent day out.