You need to enable JavaScript to run this app.

Skip to main content

Arriva State of The Fleet

RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
(Yesterday, 8:54 pm)Superman wrote The case has already been put forward. New double decker vehicles are coming for Ashington in 2026, along with 14 new electric vehicles for Blyth, 14 electric vehicles for Durham, 21 electric vehicles for Darlington and another two dozen Volvo Evoras for Tees Valley.

Arriva Yorkshire also due to receive 50 new vehicles by Christmas, the same senior management team making all of these calls (and arguably the Yorkshire fleet needs the investment much more to be honest).

They can't change the world overnight.

I am also aware that the senior engineering personnel have also been shown the door already due to the failures in the north specifically. The Head of Engineering and the Engineering Manager both not seen for a while and the former already advertising the need for a new job on linkedin.

A business left to rot by DB, investment now starting you flow, but it all takes time.

While this is good to hear, and I thank you for confirming that the new vehicles are on the horizon, it's possibly all too little too late for many people. Absolutely agreed that they cannot change the world overnight, but they have made poor decisions for years at this point - irrespective of DB ownership.

It has been rather irresponsible to constantly increase the workload, especially given how demanding that workload is, if you don't have adequate resources to cope with that. Lots of those increases have happened post-DB too. Asking vehicles which are already high mileage to do extra evening X15 duties, to go to Wooler/Kelso, and extra X30s is madness. I get that these will all have increased depot income, and I understand that at this time that is important, but surely there needed to be a plan to make sure all this additional work was going to be operated by suitable machinery? The sheer number of breakdowns on these routes because of how much abuse the vehicles are getting is ridiculous, and cannot help the company long term with customer perception. 

It is all well and good senior staff being disposed of, but if the people on the ground deciding if a vehicle is fit for service remain the same then nothing will change. There are a number of examples of this at Ashington alone recently, I've already pointed out 1574 but others are just as bad.   

Same can be said for vehicle allocation. I've made the point on here before, but the amount of runs which are booked a single decker which I see every day with standing loads is ridiculous - on services which are generally double deck allocated I will add, so it's not as if a double decker would be out of the question. Even outside of the capacity issue though, Ashington literally have 3 route branded vehicles (not counting the 17-plate MMCs as that's defunct now) yet it seems like a daily challenge of how badly they can allocate them. 1479 seems to do anything but a 777. Once again, all of this is back to the people running it day to day - not DB investment. 

I fully understand that UK Bus, as a whole, suffered under DB and it will take time to rectify this properly. The amount of investment needed to fix all of the problems at Arriva is likely scary even for the new ownership, however all of that investment is for nothing if the basics aren't getting done properly.
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
(Yesterday, 8:54 pm)Superman wrote The case has already been put forward. New double decker vehicles are coming for Ashington in 2026, along with 14 new electric vehicles for Blyth, 14 electric vehicles for Durham, 21 electric vehicles for Darlington and another two dozen Volvo Evoras for Tees Valley.

Arriva Yorkshire also due to receive 50 new vehicles by Christmas, the same senior management team making all of these calls (and arguably the Yorkshire fleet needs the investment much more to be honest).

They can't change the world overnight.

I am also aware that the senior engineering personnel have also been shown the door already due to the failures in the north specifically. The Head of Engineering and the Engineering Manager both not seen for a while and the former already advertising the need for a new job on linkedin.

A business left to rot by DB, investment now starting you flow, but it all takes time.
I think the problem as well, is that modern deckers are getting the same expectations put on to them as their Cummins L10 / Gardner / Volvo D10 grandparents did - but now faced with tighter emission controls and city focussed gearing.

Even the B9TLs whilst decent, haven't got the legs / durability the Volvo Olympian had on longer distance work.

GNE although didn't always get it right, did eventually go down the route of 1x spare for every 7 or 8 new vehicles purchased in their golden era when they ordered heavily around 2013-14. 

I think Arriva need to be doing the same IMO.

Also, if Arriva do go down the ADL route, will ADL be offering the 7 speed Voith DIWA.8 NXT?

I know Wrightbus are offering this on the Ultroliner powered by Cummins - but if Volvo came to their senses and produced a new two axile B8TL with this gearbox, I reckon they'd be as good as the Leyland Olympian / MCW Metrobus!
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
(Today, 10:23 am)L469 YVK wrote I think the problem as well, is that modern deckers are getting the same expectations put on to them as their Cummins L10 / Gardner / Volvo D10 grandparents did - but now faced with tighter emission controls and city focussed gearing.

Even the B9TLs whilst decent, haven't got the legs / durability the Volvo Olympian had on longer distance work.

GNE although didn't always get it right, did eventually go down the route of 1x spare for every 7 or 8 new vehicles purchased in their golden era when they ordered heavily around 2013-14. 

I think Arriva need to be doing the same IMO.

Also, if Arriva do go down the ADL route, will ADL be offering the 7 speed Voith DIWA.8 NXT?

I know Wrightbus are offering this on the Ultroliner powered by Cummins - but if Volvo came to their senses and produced a new two axile B8TL with this gearbox, I reckon they'd be as good as the Leyland Olympian / MCW Metrobus!

 Good to see the EVORA  been a poplar choice for arriva North East  there proven a big success down at Redcar for the x4s
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
(Yesterday, 10:09 pm)PH - BQA wrote While this is good to hear, and I thank you for confirming that the new vehicles are on the horizon, it's possibly all too little too late for many people. Absolutely agreed that they cannot change the world overnight, but they have made poor decisions for years at this point - irrespective of DB ownership.

It has been rather irresponsible to constantly increase the workload, especially given how demanding that workload is, if you don't have adequate resources to cope with that. Lots of those increases have happened post-DB too. Asking vehicles which are already high mileage to do extra evening X15 duties, to go to Wooler/Kelso, and extra X30s is madness. I get that these will all have increased depot income, and I understand that at this time that is important, but surely there needed to be a plan to make sure all this additional work was going to be operated by suitable machinery? The sheer number of breakdowns on these routes because of how much abuse the vehicles are getting is ridiculous, and cannot help the company long term with customer perception. 

It is all well and good senior staff being disposed of, but if the people on the ground deciding if a vehicle is fit for service remain the same then nothing will change. There are a number of examples of this at Ashington alone recently, I've already pointed out 1574 but others are just as bad.   

Same can be said for vehicle allocation. I've made the point on here before, but the amount of runs which are booked a single decker which I see every day with standing loads is ridiculous - on services which are generally double deck allocated I will add, so it's not as if a double decker would be out of the question. Even outside of the capacity issue though, Ashington literally have 3 route branded vehicles (not counting the 17-plate MMCs as that's defunct now) yet it seems like a daily challenge of how badly they can allocate them. 1479 seems to do anything but a 777. Once again, all of this is back to the people running it day to day - not DB investment. 

I fully understand that UK Bus, as a whole, suffered under DB and it will take time to rectify this properly. The amount of investment needed to fix all of the problems at Arriva is likely scary even for the new ownership, however all of that investment is for nothing if the basics aren't getting done properly.

In fairness, it's questionable why Ashington should keep getting all this investment. It's not just the vehicles which are to blame as it's clear as day there's issues beyond that.

Ignoring the X14/X15/X18/X20, nothing at Ashington is more difficult that what Blyth runs so it's not an excuse and what investment are they getting - absolutely buggar all, yet again. It's embarrassing the last new vehicle at the depot (and I'm not counting the ex Jesmond routes as there's zero reason for anyone in SE Northumberland to use them) are 2012 Pulsar's which ironically are totally unfit for purpose. I'm also not counting the buses now in Leeds either. 

No doubt, the shite that Ashington has wrecked to the heavens, is going to end up at Blyth now to see off the much more superior DB300's and no doubt the issues will follow. If you're an engineer at Arriva you might aswell break everything because it's the only way you seem to get new buses, Redcar for example aswell. No doubt the staff there have a similar opinion since they're never out a Sunday aswell while all but 2 of the 59 Plate DB300's are out being a rock, as usual.

Thank god there's a train with 90's stock which are a hell of lot of superior so I don't have to deal with them anymore tbh.
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
(5 hours ago)Storx wrote In fairness, it's questionable why Ashington should keep getting all this investment. It's not just the vehicles which are to blame as it's clear as day there's issues beyond that.

Ignoring the X14/X15/X18/X20, nothing at Ashington is more difficult that what Blyth runs so it's not an excuse and what investment are they getting - absolutely buggar all, yet again. It's embarrassing the last new vehicle at the depot (and I'm not counting the ex Jesmond routes as there's zero reason for anyone in SE Northumberland to use them) are 2012 Pulsar's which ironically are totally unfit for purpose. I'm also not counting the buses now in Leeds either. 

No doubt, the shite that Ashington has wrecked to the heavens, is going to end up at Blyth now to see off the much more superior DB300's and no doubt the issues will follow. If you're an engineer at Arriva you might aswell break everything because it's the only way you seem to get new buses, Redcar for example aswell. No doubt the staff there have a similar opinion since they're never out a Sunday aswell while all but 2 of the 59 Plate DB300's are out being a rock, as usual.

Thank god there's a train with 90's stock which are a hell of lot of superior so I don't have to deal with them anymore tbh.

It's very simple - they operate significantly more miles on more demanding work. You can't just ignore the X14/15/18/20, the combined PVR of those services (at present) is 18 - so they need as an absolute minimum 18 suitable deckers. Obviously you need slightly more than that to cover for inspections, MOT etc. so you need 20-ish if you're purely covering those routes. Obviously though, you don't want to just massacre the same 20 vehicles day in day out - so some flexibility is needed, and you realistically need a much larger pool to take from. This is the current situation with the 17 and 72-plates, but the 72-plates are plagued by electrical issues (from new) and the 17-plates are now 8 years old and are starting to show it - they're all well above 500k miles now, with a couple north of 600k. 

There's obviously the X16, 777, X30 too which you left out of your list. On top of that, despite the X21/22 being similar to the X10/11 in terms of high speed sections, the X21/22 are of course higher mileage runs. 

Ultimately no DB300 at Blyth has (bar an occasional day here and there if loaned) ever had to deal with any actual express work - every single decker currently at Ashington has worked the express services for multiple years at one point. Even the single deckers are worked harder on the X16 than any of the Blyth ones are. It's easy to see why they get the investment, you don't want buses that are serving rural Northumberland suffering from huge reliability issues when serving those communities is a huge part of your income through council funding.
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
(4 hours ago)PH - BQA wrote It's very simple - they operate significantly more miles on more demanding work. You can't just ignore the X14/15/18/20, the combined PVR of those services (at present) is 18 - so they need as an absolute minimum 18 suitable deckers. Obviously you need slightly more than that to cover for inspections, MOT etc. so you need 20-ish if you're purely covering those routes. Obviously though, you don't want to just massacre the same 20 vehicles day in day out - so some flexibility is needed, and you realistically need a much larger pool to take from. This is the current situation with the 17 and 72-plates, but the 72-plates are plagued by electrical issues (from new) and the 17-plates are now 8 years old and are starting to show it - they're all well above 500k miles now, with a couple north of 600k. 

There's obviously the X16, 777, X30 too which you left out of your list. On top of that, despite the X21/22 being similar to the X10/11 in terms of high speed sections, the X21/22 are of course higher mileage runs. 

Ultimately no DB300 at Blyth has (bar an occasional day here and there if loaned) ever had to deal with any actual express work - every single decker currently at Ashington has worked the express services for multiple years at one point. Even the single deckers are worked harder on the X16 than any of the Blyth ones are. It's easy to see why they get the investment, you don't want buses that are serving rural Northumberland suffering from huge reliability issues when serving those communities is a huge part of your income through council funding.

Aye don't disagree but I'd deal with it differently personally and deal with the real headache which appears to not being dealt with again the X93/X94.

Personally I'd get 8 deckers at Redcar and get the 4 72 Plates back to Ashington and that's your 19 buses for the X14/15/18/20 with the 17 Plates acting as backups with the 7556/7/8/60/62 joining immediately to plug the gap when the electrics come to Blyth. If Ashington can't keep the rural buses running with 31 decent deckers then they're doing something very wrong imo. What happens to the B9TL's, someone else can decide. 

The 64/15 plate Enviro's are ideal for the 35/X21/X22, for now imo and there's no realistic place for them without dumping them at Blyth which are much better invested in new electics and the X10/X11 and 308, in particular, deserve investment. We're not talking about something like the 57/57A which are marginal routes, these are flagship or should be flagship routes anyway and because of interworking patterns that's every route.

Ironically Arriva being Arriva, I wouldn't put it past them to get new buses at Ashington, and some of the newer buses leaving for Whitby and Liverpool; something has to replace their DB300's down there and it wouldn't be the first time it's happened. The new E200MMC's at Darlington are already pretty much guaranteed to be going aswell.
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
IMHO all of Arriva Northumbria’s routes should be double decker operated except for the 1,2,57,57a,415,434,553 and the 777 where a saloon would be OK for those in terms of passenger capacity. Putting salons on any service into Newcastle is always asking for trouble, especially during the peaks.

Until we see the start of the BYDs (and hopefully other new vehicles in time) appearing perhaps the local management should be aiming to acquire a few more spare vehicles that could be available in the wider group to give the existing aging/knacked fleet a bit more slack. Of course, I realise that will probably result in another “robbing Peter to pay Paul” situation again.
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
(3 hours ago)solsburian wrote IMHO all of Arriva Northumbria’s routes should be double decker operated except for the 1,2,57,57a,415,434,553 and the 777 where a saloon would be OK for those in terms of passenger capacity. Putting salons on any service into Newcastle is always asking for trouble, especially during the peaks.

Until we see the start of the BYDs (and hopefully other new vehicles in time) appearing perhaps the local management should be aiming to acquire a few more spare vehicles that could be available in the wider group to give the existing aging/knacked fleet a bit more slack. Of course, I realise that will probably result in another “robbing Peter to pay Paul” situation again.

Yeah can't disagree to be honest, keep forgetting about the number of singles around. 

I'm surprised they don't do a swap with Darlington for 1602-7 for the 57/57A. I know Streetlite's etc are crap, but the short length buses which are a complete headache for Darlington would be ideal for it. Could probably throw them on the 415/434 aswell really and I'm sure Durham could give up 1579/80 aswell to tidy the batch up (displaced by electrics?). Let's be honest the 1/2/57/57A/434 aren't getting new buses anytime soon and it sorts out the singles for awhile and get rid of the short Solo's which are also completely inappropiate on the 57/57A. 

Ignoring the 553 headache, it means they can start working on making Northumbria Pulsar free as they're the more unreliable vehicles lately over the deckers, even at Ashington.
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
(3 hours ago)Storx wrote Yeah can't disagree to be honest, keep forgetting about the number of singles around. 

I'm surprised they don't do a swap with Darlington for 1602-7 for the 57/57A. I know Streetlite's etc are crap, but the short length buses which are a complete headache for Darlington would be ideal for it. Could probably throw them on the 415/434 aswell really and I'm sure Durham could give up 1579/80 aswell to tidy the batch up (displaced by electrics?). Let's be honest the 1/2/57/57A/434 aren't getting new buses anytime soon and it sorts out the singles for awhile and get rid of the short Solo's which are also completely inappropiate on the 57/57A. 

Ignoring the 553 headache, it means they can start working on making Northumbria Pulsar free as they're the more unreliable vehicles lately over the deckers, even at Ashington.

The Streetlites are far, far, worse than the Pulsars. Of the 8 at Ashington, it isn't unusual for 3-4 of them to be off the road at once. Last week, for example, 1574 and 1575 were both VOR for most of it and both 1576 and 1582 had issues on Friday. 1577 was also off but checking the MOT history this looks to have been tested on Friday, so that explains that absence.

Pulsar wise there have been some repeated failures recently, but overall they're still pretty reliable - I'd certainly be more confident in a Pulsar getting me somewhere than a Streetlite or E400 at present. 

The 415/460 cannot be ran by anything larger than a Solo as an FYI, so that plan wouldn't work. I assume they have a plan for when 2601-3 eventually go, but unless it is risk assessed again or has a route change then I believe it was deemed too risky to send anything larger.
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
(2 hours ago)PH - BQA wrote The Streetlites are far, far, worse than the Pulsars. Of the 8 at Ashington, it isn't unusual for 3-4 of them to be off the road at once. 

Pulsar wise there have been some repeated failures recently, but overall they're still fairly reliable - I'd certainly be more confident in a Pulsar getting me somewhere than a Streetlite or E400 at present. 

The 415/460 cannot be ran by anything larger than a Solo as an FYI, so that plan wouldn't work. I assume they have a plan for when 2601-3 eventually go, but unless it is risk assessed again or has a route change then I believe it was deemed too risky to send anything larger.

Yeah no arguments about reliability but I suppose if they actually had some training how to deal with them, maybe they might work? It's a weird one as they used to be alright at Jesmond but since ending up at Ashington they've turned to crap. Then again those 4 58 Plate E400's which I said would be a nightmare at Blyth have been a rock there aswell, so maybe it's not the buses...

Fair on the 415/460, thought they might have been able to scrape through with those Streetlite's since their shorter and there's Decker's on quite regularly - think they're both 10.8m. Struggling to see where the real issue is though, can't think of any areas where they couldn't get round?

Mind I'm surprised they don't just give up the contract when it runs out, I respect it's money but surely having a microfleet of vehicles for 1 bus now isn't viable, or at least worth it?
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
(2 hours ago)Storx wrote Yeah no arguments about reliability but I suppose if they actually had some training how to deal with them, maybe they might work? It's a weird one as they used to be alright at Jesmond but since ending up at Ashington they've turned to crap. Then again those 4 58 Plate E400's which I said would be a nightmare at Blyth have been a rock there aswell, so maybe it's not the buses...

Fair on the 415/460, thought they might have been able to scrape through with those Streetlite's since their shorter and there's Decker's on quite regularly - think they're both 10.8m. Struggling to see where the real issue is though, can't think of any areas where they couldn't get round?

Mind I'm surprised they don't just give up the contract when it runs out, I respect it's money but surely having a microfleet of vehicles for 1 bus now isn't viable, or at least worth it?

They weren't great at Jesmond either, but they were also much younger then - and being used on the 52 etc. rather than X16s. It's also not like Ashington had never seen a Streetlite before, they had 1579-81 from new. 

7557 was just off for 3 months with engine trouble, but otherwise they seem about as reliable as they were at Ashington. 7562, from memory, did a fair number of X14/15s when based there and was pretty capable. Ultimately they're 17 year old buses and should be scrapped imminently. 

My thoughts on the Ashington engineering situation is well documented at this point, and it was posted on here yesterday that senior staff have left the business, so it is clear that there are issues. That said, it is also clear that some of the buses are knackered at this point and badly need replacing, or allocated more appropriately. If the Streetlites were used on the 1/2 for example, like they should be, then there'd likely be fewer issues. 

For the 415/460, unsure where the issue is but it was evidently enough of a one to result in them never being operated by anything else. Even to the point of sending deckers on the 434 so that a Solo can go onto the 415/460. My guess would be out of Felton, likely due to parked cars.
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
(5 hours ago)Storx wrote In fairness, it's questionable why Ashington should keep getting all this investment. It's not just the vehicles which are to blame as it's clear as day there's issues beyond that.

Ignoring the X14/X15/X18/X20, nothing at Ashington is more difficult that what Blyth runs so it's not an excuse and what investment are they getting - absolutely buggar all, yet again. It's embarrassing the last new vehicle at the depot (and I'm not counting the ex Jesmond routes as there's zero reason for anyone in SE Northumberland to use them) are 2012 Pulsar's which ironically are totally unfit for purpose. I'm also not counting the buses now in Leeds either. 

No doubt, the shite that Ashington has wrecked to the heavens, is going to end up at Blyth now to see off the much more superior DB300's and no doubt the issues will follow. If you're an engineer at Arriva you might aswell break everything because it's the only way you seem to get new buses, Redcar for example aswell. No doubt the staff there have a similar opinion since they're never out a Sunday aswell while all but 2 of the 59 Plate DB300's are out being a rock, as usual.

Thank god there's a train with 90's stock which are a hell of lot of superior so I don't have to deal with them anymore tbh.

(3 hours ago)Storx wrote Aye don't disagree but I'd deal with it differently personally and deal with the real headache which appears to not being dealt with again the X93/X94.

Personally I'd get 8 deckers at Redcar and get the 4 72 Plates back to Ashington and that's your 19 buses for the X14/15/18/20 with the 17 Plates acting as backups with the 7556/7/8/60/62 joining immediately to plug the gap when the electrics come to Blyth. If Ashington can't keep the rural buses running with 31 decent deckers then they're doing something very wrong imo. What happens to the B9TL's, someone else can decide. 

The 64/15 plate Enviro's are ideal for the 35/X21/X22, for now imo and there's no realistic place for them without dumping them at Blyth which are much better invested in new electics and the X10/X11 and 308, in particular, deserve investment. We're not talking about something like the 57/57A which are marginal routes, these are flagship or should be flagship routes anyway and because of interworking patterns that's every route.

Ironically Arriva being Arriva, I wouldn't put it past them to get new buses at Ashington, and some of the newer buses leaving for Whitby and Liverpool; something has to replace their DB300's down there and it wouldn't be the first time it's happened. The new E200MMC's at Darlington are already pretty much guaranteed to be going aswell.

Mmc are needed for the x93s b9s over hand  are struggling
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
(2 hours ago)PH - BQA wrote They weren't great at Jesmond either, but they were also much younger then - and being used on the 52 etc. rather than X16s. It's also not like Ashington had never seen a Streetlite before, they had 1579-81 from new. 

7557 was just off for 3 months with engine trouble, but otherwise they seem about as reliable as they were at Ashington. 7562, from memory, did a fair number of X14/15s when based there and was pretty capable. Ultimately they're 17 year old buses and should be scrapped imminently. 

My thoughts on the Ashington engineering situation is well documented at this point, and it was posted on here yesterday that senior staff have left the business, so it is clear that there are issues. That said, it is also clear that some of the buses are knackered at this point and badly need replacing, or allocated more appropriately. If the Streetlites were used on the 1/2 for example, like they should be, then there'd likely be fewer issues. 

For the 415/460, unsure where the issue is but it was evidently enough of a one to result in them never being operated by anything else. Even to the point of sending deckers on the 434 so that a Solo can go onto the 415/460. My guess would be out of Felton, likely due to parked cars.

Am I right in thinking that the initial batch of Ashington's StreetLites were intended for the 35? (IMHO I excluded that from the list as whenever I’ve seen it seemed to be busy enough to justify dekers). Keeping them off the express services into Newcastle may help their reliability I guess. I kind of feel bad for others when a decker appears on the 57/57a boards as it is a total overkill and would be better used elsewhere, but at I presume sometimes those boards are allocated deckers that may be having reliability issues so are kept “closer to home”.
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
(1 hour ago)Bob5666 wrote Mmc are needed for the x93s b9s over hand  are struggling  or you could easily take some mmcs from Durham 

Send Ashington streetlites to Stockton in exchange of pulsars from Stockton to Ashington to improve  Ashington sevice locally  
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
(1 hour ago)solsburian wrote Am I right in thinking that the initial batch of Ashington's StreetLites were intended for the 35? (IMHO I excluded that from the list as whenever I’ve seen it seemed to be busy enough to justify dekers). Keeping them off the express services into Newcastle may help their reliability I guess. I kind of feel bad for others when a decker appears on the 57/57a boards as it is a total overkill and would be better used elsewhere, but at I presume sometimes those boards are allocated deckers that may be having reliability issues so are kept “closer to home”.

Yeah that’s what they were initially branded. If memory serves two of them frequently appeared on the X14 prior to them going to Durham, as the Scanias were increasingly unreliable.

For the weekday 57/57A deckers, often when I’ve seen them on there it’s been a board which starts around the same time as a 21/22 should be going out that’s allocated a single decker instead - the allocations have been consistently awful there for some time now. If that is their logic I don’t see how Whitley Bay is any more local than Newcastle to be honest, and at least if it breaks on the X21 there’ll be something along in 20 minutes versus an hour on the 57.
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
(1 hour ago)PH - BQA wrote Yeah that’s what they were initially branded. If memory serves two of them frequently appeared on the X14 prior to them going to Durham, as the Scanias were increasingly unreliable.

For the weekday 57/57A deckers, often when I’ve seen them on there it’s been a board which starts around the same time as a 21/22 should be going out that’s allocated a single decker instead - the allocations have been consistently awful there for some time now. If that is their logic I don’t see how Whitley Bay is any more local than Newcastle to be honest, and at least if it breaks on the X21 there’ll be something along in 20 minutes versus an hour on the 57.

Plus, now there is direct competition for the X21/22 with the Northumberland Line, you would think they would be prioritising deckers above everything else for those services. They still get busy queues at Haymarket, but I wonder how long that will last when Bedlington Station re-opens and Arriva don’t change anything.
RE: Arriva State of The Fleet
@Bob5666 I would like the Redcar 72 plate MMCs return to be with the rest at Ashington where they were ordered for. For the likes of the X15/18/93, I wonder how the MMC’s perform compared to older busses, and perhaps something like a modern single or double decker coach would be more suitable (and attractive from a passenger POV) for such services.