(16 Dec 2016, 12:24 pm)Greg in Weardale wrote I usually find GNE drivers quite good; yes, fares are too high and inconsistent, but it's the constant service changes, usually reductions, that put people off using the bus when they can't rely on the one they need to get to work still running in a couple of months. GNE need to remember that the success of their business depends on them providing a useful, reliable public service, for which they need to establish an integrated network providing good transport links across the area they serve - then leave it alone. We keep getting idiotic changes, look at the new 9 timetable, for example, and the latest X6/7 changes show how they just twiddle things about, usually for the worse, and are more concerned with pointless tit for tat competition with Arriva, rather than providing a stable network on which passengers can depend.
Can't forget the bus war in Sunderland with Stagecoach in North Sunderland, which tbh they lost.
Wouldn't be surprised if launch a new service to Newcastle to compete against Stagecoach's new X24, on almost the same route (maybe serve Heworth and Gateshead interchange though) in the new year.
I haven't seen the 9, X6 or X7 since the changes due to work so i can't comment on how they are doing.