I noticed yesterday that Milton Keynes (population 230,000) seems to have a lot of bus services operated by Optare Solos. Are there any other large places which have a lot of Optare Solo operated services? I know that they are quite commonly used on bus links between the rail station and town/city centre in larger places but in most larger places there aren't the type of bus you'd be most likely to see.
MK Metro bought huge numbers of Solos to replace elderly Mercedes 608Ds around 1999/2000 and they've been here ever since. Arriva have started reducing them now with orders of Enviro 300s and Citaros, as well as second hand Wright Cadets, and more will go when the new electric Wright Streetlites arrive. But we are overrun with Solos at the moment. They are standard on routes 1, 2, 7, 8, 9 and 32. Centrebus also use them on routes 90/90A and Z&S have a few they use on routes 11/12. I'm frankly sick of them and the sooner they go the better. But I could say the same of Arriva themselves.
Aylesbury has quite a few Solos, with Arriva using some on route 8 and others using them on routes 3, 5, 6 and 11. Northampton has had a recent influx of them too from other depots.