I think that on the whole, you can't argue that Arriva have invested in a lot more newer buses over the last few years - that said, they went years in a lot of areas with no new vehicles at all, so the time had to come where new buses had to be bought.

My two main criticisms of them in my area would be a lack of evening services and no hardly any real express services.

We have the X5 from Loftus to Middlesbrough which has only a couple of journeys in each direction running to an unusual route which stops at every stop to Skelton, then misses Guisborough completely and goes none stop direct to Middlesbrough. Surely a limited stop service along the lines of the old X56 would've been better? And more express services during the day?

And except for the 5 they have nothing venturing into East Cleveland or Whitby on an evening....Whitby is cut off after 7.pm.

I can understand that subsidies have been cut and later journeys can be unprofitable if they look at it that way, BUT surely if people can get to/from somewhere late evening they may use buses at other times of the day too. If they know the service just isnt there when they need it, they'll avoid using the bus at all and make alternative arrangements for travel the rest of the time aswell.

I know Arriva are a business, but sometimes I think they should realise not every journey is going to be busy, but at least providing a service (say the X4) every hour and a half or two hours even on a night wouldn't break the bank, and would encourage use at other times.