Thanks for your response Steve.

I'd prefer not to name names as it was an informal and enjoyable chat with a guy who, I hasten to add, was happy in his job and proud of his employer but just not impressed with said buses. To be honest I'm more into the independents rather than the large fleets like BE and Ulsterbus and as such I wouldn't note fleet numbers anyway.

On another note, I've been thinking since about the restricted gearbox fitted. I can accept the logic as to why Translink may choose to forego the manual (all be it "tiptronic") option on this box and can almost see why they would choose to leave out the starting gear selection options but does that mean that these coaches only literally have selection of "D" for drive, "N" for neutral and "R" for reverse? I ask because the standard version has an extra selection "Dm" and "Rm" which represent "Drive manouvre" and "Reverse manouvre". These selections have an effect simliar to "half clucthing" a standard manual and gives much better control in slow and tight manouvres. Having tried to reverse out of some of the bays in Bus Aras, for example, on a busy Friday evening I have to say that I would find this feature invaluable and would trade it any day for either a sun-blind or a radio!! Possibly they have retained this feature but I was just wondering.

I must agree that the coaches look impressive on the road and the livery definitely suits them but I just wondered about my new friends comments!!