(04 Sep 2019, 8:59 am)Andreos1 wrote

https://www.transportfocus.org.uk/resear...ple-think/

Young passengers think services are designed for them, older passengers are being priced out of the market due to ever increasing fares... Where will it end?

The thing is, a lot of the new things that have been introduced are what older people think young people want. For instance, the new 5 to 25 fares that they have introduced, making the monthly ticket app only means I won't use it. If I'm going to be paying £70 a month, I don't want to have to buy another ticket when my battery dies and I cant load the app up. They seem to think that we want everything to be on our phones, but the issue with that is, phones can only be used a limited amount on a charge, and if literally everything relies on a phone, it isn't going to last as long. It's all well and good having charging points on the bus, but if I have to have battery on my phone to get on the bus, they're useless (unless of course the driver is kind enough to let you on and charge your phone for a bit before showing them your ticket. Which has happened to me a couple times when the GNE app crashes)

Then of course there is the point they bring up about quality of buses. One of the reasons I absolutely hate travelling Arriva is because the buses are shocking, especially in Durham. There seems to be absolutely no consistency to the allocations.

Plus, in my experience at least, GNE drivers are far nicer than Arriva's. Most of the Arriva drivers seem miserable (as you would be if you worked for Arriva!). And I've been on a fair few Arriva buses where the driver can barely speak or understand English. That isn't to say I don't want foreign drivers, but they should at least be able to speak the language fluently!