I can talk about my experience in Hartlepool. Most of the town has no bus service at all after 6:30. So if you went to Seaton Carew you couldn’t stay there on a night as the last bus back to the town is at about 6:40 after that nothing. I was at College doing a course that finished at 7. That meant waiting about 20 minutes for the 36 or if I was lucky the 7 if I got to the stop on time as both where 10 minutes apart. Even recently during the temporary timetables the 7 was supposed to be every 15 minutes but quite often they would be a 30 to 40 minute gap. The fleet Stagecoach in the town is crying out for investment the last new buses the town got was in 2008 the newest buses in the fleet are 10 years old and spent years in South Shields or Sunderland before Hartlepool got them and at least half the fleet is knackered you often see them breaking down here or buses been swapped because a problem has been found. Never mind USB or wi fi some modern buses or even newer cascades or refurbished buses that don’t sound like it could break would be good here because a knackered fleet and majority of town having no service after 6:30 is hardly a good way to get people using the bus.

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(07 Sep 2021, 3:59 pm)BusLoverMum wrote Not helped by the state of their fleet. Twice in as many weeks I've seen one of their E200s conked out and it's not like I leave the house every day.

Them Arriva E200s Arriva use are just awful. I was unfortunate to ride on one on the 57A earlier this year and my backside was killing by the time I got off at Hartlepool Interchange the seats are awful the engine did not sound to good either hardly encouraging people to use the service regularly. The difference between that and the street lite/ pulsars/E400 on the 24 are massive.