(11 Jan 2014, 9:27 pm)Dan wrote I do wonder how long ANE/SNW will keep up the 685 before it starts making a loss...

It probably already is. It's not subsidised and by the way things are going, Arriva aren't acting as if they want to keep it.

Unfortunately living on the route (part of the route that has recently lost all Arriva services) I'm stuck with them I'm afraid. I'm not too keen on the people high up in the company if I'm honest.
They seem to make decisions based on what is going to make the most money (fair enough, it is a business at the end of the day) but at the same time inconveniencing lots of others.
For example - scrapping the first bus off Newcastle to Carlisle which left at 0625 ish and got you into Carlisle at 8am ish. Brilliant; people (like me) could get to work in plenty of time and it is *relatively* cheap.
But they scrapped that, from my eyes to introduce competition with GNE to provide a Hexham only service early on in the morning. Fabulous; but the Hexham - Newcastle corridor is spoilt for choice already!


At the other end of the scale, I dislike the people who immediately go and bleat to the Hexham Courant for the sake of it - just as much as I dislike Arriva themselves. Just the pure ignorance really makes me want to headbutt a brick wall; they do not know what they are talking about - for example they think that Arriva have tonnes of low-floor coaches with ramps (ready for disability legislation) sitting at Jesmond and they're not using them. Nope! The Omnicity is probably one of the best options for the 685 as it is. Yes they made a mistake putting horrid leather seats in but they can then rectify that easily!



Those are my views anyway. It's late now so I better go to bed.
Sean

EDIT: On another note, I'd like to mention that I would love to see the whole service either operated by Arriva fully (therefore getting rid of Stagecoach issues [leaving in the twice-hourly Brampton-Carlisle shuttles though]) or by another operator - like Dan, I favour GNE the most out of the 'big three'.
Not really fond of Arriva to be honest.