(04 Apr 2015, 11:13 am)Tommy_1581 wrote The conclusion;

• Arriva services are late, dirty and unprofessional
  
• Arriva employees don't care if power sockets and WiFi don't work and will do nothing about it
  
• Complain about the poor service and get rude responses
  
• Don't get on anything which is as dull as Eeyore's bottom
  
• Drivers don't care if they run late
  
• Leave vulnerable people waiting for 40 minutes at a cold bus stop
  

(04 Apr 2015, 11:33 am)palatine3833 wrote Can I just say that Arriva do not have a 'sit around' attitude.  When the W-RBB Tridents were transferred to Durham depot, drivers complained about the heating and being underpowered, countless hours were then spent to get them up to standard - hence why they are now at Yorkshire Tiger rather than being scrapped.  The same went for the T-FGN deckers.  I'm assuming the reason the Ashington inspector said that to you was because he knows who you are and thought he could have a joke, rather than being slagged off on a forum.  On a positive though, I challenge anyone to say that Arriva haven't improved from 5 years ago.

(04 Apr 2015, 11:52 am)Jimmi wrote I don't think Arriva are given as much credit on this forum for some things as they probably should do.

(04 Apr 2015, 11:57 am)mb134 wrote Hmm, is this before you crossed the river?

(04 Apr 2015, 12:03 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote Not sure, I wasn't really taking notes on the journey, I was listening to music through my earphones.

(04 Apr 2015, 12:02 pm)aureolin wrote I totally agree with you there. I personally feel that they neglect where I live, but when you look at the region as a whole, they're actually providing a very good service on the most part.

(04 Apr 2015, 12:22 pm)Jimmi wrote Agreed, some totally slate Arriva on here. When Arriva do something wrong people go on and on about the topic but if Go North East did the same thing nothing would be said. For example when the ex demonstrator EcoCitys entered service on the 21 people went on and on about a bit of air coming through a gap in the doors and it went on and on about it including people who have never been on that bus then a few days later I posted a picture of a WTX Citaro with part of the door sticking out on the breeze which could cause harm to people and the only reply was "it didn't affect my journey" sorry but how is this okay.

Everytime a MAX and Sapphire isn't on the service it's branded for there is mass complaints on here and yet I had a manky old President on the 309 without the advertised features and this is a booked working and this is okay but I bet people would complain about a non Sapphire bus on the morning 7 dupe and you wonder why gtom went off his nut about the 21!

(04 Apr 2015, 12:48 pm)aureolin wrote It's a bit like the 'Coast & Country' debate yesterday. Discussing why 'Coast' was in the name of a brand that doesn't serve the coast was considered as over thinking and a lot of fuss, yet that wasn't the case when me and others were slating the decision not to refurbish the green flooring on the Arriva Omnicity MAX refurbs. 

As it turned out, someone posted about the impracticality of doing so (the way it's laid + cost involved), which is good input into a debate. At the same time, I've no doubt in the coming weeks we'll find out why that brand has been named as such. We just don't know what goes on behind closed doors, but it doesn't mean we should avoid constructive debate on here. If you make a point, provide your argument behind it, then I can't see the problem. Nowt irritates me more than people posting that something is 'shocking' or 'rubbish', but then not providing anything to say why they think that.

I'd like to think that this applied to all operators, and not just Arriva and Metro, as often the case seems to be.

(04 Apr 2015, 1:18 pm)Jimmi wrote Can't stand it when people just go on random rants about how crap Arriva or any other operator any time there bus is a few minutes late. If you are going to complain about any operator on here it should be constructive criticism as I feel there should be a reason behind your argument such as the MAX Omnicitys not having a full refurbishment quality valid argument would be "I don't like the colour scheme it just doesn't look right" that is fine in my opinion whereas "Stupid penny pinching Arriva you are crap" is not constructive criticism in my mind.

People always find excuses for Go North East not putting buses with enhanced features such as WiFi but everytime a non MAX bus turns up on a service even when people have no idea as to why the allocation has happened it ends up becoming another Anti Arriva argument. Sorry to say this but it's true and some wonder why gtom was so vocal when it came to the allocations on the 21.

I think some of us need to rethink the way some of us think and some opinions need to be balanced and I think we have to try and stop taking one operators side, although that is difficult at times when if like me you can only realistically use one operator as the others don't operate in your area.

(04 Apr 2015, 11:13 am)Tommy_1581 wrote The conclusion;

• Arriva services are late, dirty and unprofessional
  
• Arriva employees don't care if power sockets and WiFi don't work and will do nothing about it
  
• Complain about the poor service and get rude responses
  
• Don't get on anything which is as dull as Eeyore's bottom
  
• Drivers don't care if they run late
  
• Leave vulnerable people waiting for 40 minutes at a cold bus stop
  

(04 Apr 2015, 6:19 pm)Tommy_1581 wrote My PREGNANT mother having to wait 40 minutes for a X21 is downright disgraceful. All this has spiralled from me reporting that a bus ran 16 minutes late yesterday and some random Arriva employee having a little rant at me.

I repeat this again; why should I pay, if my service is always running late and so unreliable?

(04 Apr 2015, 7:13 pm)Wellsey18 wrote I'm not familiar with the service but I struggle to believe a 40 minute waiting time, because it's a 15 or 20 min frequency? And with sapphire aren't they meant to be regulated to ensure no hold ups? And also so many things could have happemed that day to cause the delay, ie bad traffic so,ethereal, roadworks, a breakdown, a fault, so I dont think it's fair to slate the company. And who's to say that if GNE did operate up there who's to say they wouldn't have delays, the 19 always see,s to be delayed so maybe it's just a problematic area?!

(04 Apr 2015, 7:54 pm)Robert wrote i think people are starting to over exaggerate their experiences of late buses... As i said before, it is harder to run a bus company than some people think.

(05 Apr 2015, 3:18 pm)mb134 wrote On the back of the subject currently being discussed in the GNE thread;

How old are Arriva's depots in the region? 

With the obvious exception of Ashington, which was rebuilt last year, the one's I've seen look quite old.

(05 Apr 2015, 3:19 pm)Andreos1 wrote Belmont isn't that old in the grand scheme of things. The old Waddington Street depot was an age like.

(05 Apr 2015, 3:39 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote Belmont was built around 2012 iirc? I remember reading about how the people living near the Waddington Street depot were relieved with it's demise. Apparently it was hard to live around it, although I imagine this is the case with a lot of bus depots. 

(05 Apr 2015, 3:46 pm)Andreos1 wrote It was around that time. Trying to remember what the site was used for prior to ANE adapting it for buses.

(05 Apr 2015, 3:47 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote It's a converted warehouse I believe.

(04 Apr 2015, 9:12 am)Tommy_1581 wrote No I'm not going to get you or Tom banned from the forum. I'm voicing my opinions here, the person is telling me that I slate Arriva, because my bus is constantly late, maybe Arriva should think about my pregnant mother who stood at Wansbeck Hospital for 40 minutes waiting for a bus ON A WEDNESDAY.

If Arriva treat their customers so badly, why would I want to travel with them?

Having a pregnant woman wait for 40 minutes is extremely dangerous, would you allow that? I'd think not, I'd have a bus sent straight away and would have carried the people for free and refunded their return ticket. 

(05 Apr 2015, 8:17 pm)Multi21 wrote As hard as your story is to believe surely a hospital is the best place to be waiting if you think it's "Dangerous"  to be stood around..  

As for reporting me to Arriva. At what point did I say I worked for arriva, that my opinions have anything to do with Arriva as a company and if Arrivas customer service is so shoddy what makes you think anything would have been done? 

(06 Apr 2015, 8:32 am)Tommy_1581 wrote Same could be said if an ambulance or a police car went past at the same time that someone gets murdered at a bus stop?