(01 Aug 2014, 4:33 pm)DaveyBowyer wrote Arriva are in better shape than what they were between 2010 and 2013 but:

- More attention needs to be payed to reliability. If a bus takes 40 minutes, then say so but don't claim it to take less and if an extra bus is needed even if a Prestige, then get it on!

- Setup two local customer service numbers, one for Northumbria services and one for Durham County.

- For key routes, have dedicated service delivery managers.

- Only use wrongly branded buses as a last resort.

For your second point, I note they've went with an 03xx number now that 08xx is illegal for customer services lines. Although some buses still reference the 08xx number, which is a bit naughty.

I'd rather they had a customer services department based in the region, but I couldn't see the operational sense in having the two. You'll always need a failover (or DR site), but because it should be rare you need to invoke DR, it'd make more sense routing to another customer services centre in the UK. The reason I think it should be a regional department is because you just get a shrug of the shoulders if you mention a certain stop, town, village, etc. They have no local knowledge whatsoever which is disastrous when you're supporting a local service!