(31 Dec 2015, 1:52 pm)Dan wrote They'll have lower specification vehicles operating the service at peak-times anyway, as the extra Newcastle - Durham peak time services are currently operated by Scania L94 vehicles.
Go North East's now-redundant equivalent scheme - Gold Standard - didn't offer money-back guarantees when the advertised features (full CCTV coverage and recording as well as information screens) were not made available.
You'd expect the extra features available on the Streetdecks, to be more attractive to those that don't use the service at present. Perhaps having free WiFi, comfortable seating and power sockets, will win commuters over from the train? It's not exactly great when those peak time extras, put in there to help with the commuter loadings, will be ran by 10 year old buses without any of that. If I was commuting that route, I'd deliberately avoid the extras.
I'm actually surprised a couple of spares weren't ordered for Chester, as they could have been used on the 21 too.
I'm not 100% sure off the top of my head, but I think that Gold Standard refunds only applied if your journey was delayed by 30 minutes or more? Whereas Arriva's is just for the sake of contacting them about it. Although you never actually got a refund in either case.
