(07 Aug 2022, 6:33 pm)mb134 wrote I've recently started to use Arriva to commute to work. The monthly ticket is over £100 cheaper than what I'd need to be paying in fuel at current prices, with the trip only being around 40 mins per day longer on the bus.
The punctuality of the bus I catch in the morning is always spot on, with the evening bus only really being late on a Friday - though I can always check this while still at work and just leave a bit later. Twice I've been let down on a morning due to mechanical failure and while this is highly inconvenient for most, for me I can always just go and jump in my car so it isn't a huge issue. The comfort and cleanliness of the vehicles is always fine, not "as posh as my car" by any stretch but it isn't advertised as such and so my expectations weren't high going in. I don't use the WiFi, but it's generally always there if needed, and to be honest I've never had the need to see if the sockets/USBs work (though I'd assume they don't).
In essence, I find the service convenient, good value for money and, usually, reliable. They get the basics right majority of the time, and personally this is the most important part of a bus service.
I can't comment on commuting with GNE/SNE, as bar odd journeys here and there I've never relied on them to get me anywhere, but I would say that Arriva Northumbria at least tend to do a solid, if unremarkable, job.
I think Arriva (County Durham in my case) get the basics right, and don't promise anything more than they can deliver. At least on the services I use.
GNE, on the other hand, seem to be over promising, and very much underdelivering.
Having said that, ask me a year or two ago, and I would have said the complete opposite!
GNE were the punctual one, and it was Arriva I was having constant problems with.
Do I think GNE were wrong to go down the path they did with MG's vision for the company?
No, I honestly don't. If we're to believe what they were saying, it actually did start to work and increase passenger numbers prior to COVID.
Do I think GNE were wrong to double down on it?
No, I honestly don't. It worked in the past so why wouldn't it work again.
Do I think that GNE, having realised it wasn't working again, should have just kept going, resulting in the absolute shitshow of today?
Obviously not.
I think, as Andreos has been saying (If I ever say those words again, put me down), they really need to start again from scratch, look at where people are and where they want to go, and put some f**cking buses between them! Cutting service after service is never going to result in anything other than a spiral of decline.
Why hasn't there been a massive consultation with the public on public transport, asking people where they want to go?
I get it's a lot of effort, and probably a fair bit of money, but it's not exactly a difficult job. It'd be mostly quantitative data that could easily be sorted automatically!
In fact, given that my day job is literally working on market research and we deal with large consultations quite regularly, it's something I could probably very easily do if I could be arsed!