Arriva orders 2016/17

[H101GEV (Administrator)]

RE: Arriva orders 2016/17
In reality there is no "15 year rule" as far as Arriva's operations on Merseyside go, and never has been. There is a form of gentlemen's agreement with Merseytravel that Arriva won't use buses over 15 years in their bus stations and I remember reading of this during the dark days of B. Hind. It has never been a hard and fast rule, however - nothing like the TfGM ruling, for instance.

Speke's H-GEV Olympians were well over 15 years old when withdrawn and these continued to serve Liverpool ONE Bus Station regularly until the very end. H115GEV was more than 19 years old when it was finally taken out of service. There have been other buses kept on beyond 15 years as well, notably of late 2345 which outlived its brethren by a considerable margin. Other operators also regularly use buses over 15 years old in Merseytravel's bus stations, Cumfybus being one.