(09 Jan 2015, 6:08 pm)Tom wrote A X1 day saver is £4.30 - this will give you unlimited travel on the X1 from Darlington to Bishop Auckland

(09 Jan 2015, 6:10 pm)GUG wrote Thanks!

(10 Jan 2015, 11:33 am)JoshP wrote When the ex P&R solos enter service, what branding for the 13a/b will they carry? I hope it's not the old Pink 'Firth Moor Flyer'. I think these solos would be more suited to the 4, 3 & 19

(10 Jan 2015, 2:48 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote Rode 1320 on the 64 today.

Brilliant bus, but I'm not 100% sure they needed to give these Enviro200s the extras (sockets, leather seating, etc). I mean, it's a local service, and from my experience, 75% of the passengers are OAPs.

(10 Jan 2015, 3:20 pm)Jimmi wrote You forgot the New College Durham students and Framwellgate school kids who use this service.

I was very surprised to see that they had power sockets. All new / refurbished Arriva buses will now have e-leather seating.

(10 Jan 2015, 4:54 pm)MrPottski wrote I don't see what use branding achieves. Outside of the Sapphire and max, most customers don't really care what colour it is, they look at the destination to see if it's the right one. Plus arriva don't tend to stick to correct brand allocation anyway, and then it only gets us lot in a flap when, say, a Sapphire ends up on the X66 or similar. Surely to god, all companies should just go for a clean, well maintained, well presented fleet and cut out the gimmicks. Don't get me wrong, I think Sapphire has worked, especially on the 7, but when you start ending up with a fleet that resembles Josephs Technicolour Dreamboats (I'm looking at you GNE!) then it's just daft. I genuinely don't think Max will attract any more people in Darlington, bit we'll have to wait and see.

(10 Jan 2015, 4:54 pm)MrPottski wrote I don't see what use branding achieves. Outside of the Sapphire and max, most customers don't really care what colour it is, they look at the destination to see if it's the right one. Plus arriva don't tend to stick to correct brand allocation anyway, and then it only gets us lot in a flap when, say, a Sapphire ends up on the X66 or similar. Surely to god, all companies should just go for a clean, well maintained, well presented fleet and cut out the gimmicks. Don't get me wrong, I think Sapphire has worked, especially on the 7, but when you start ending up with a fleet that resembles Josephs Technicolour Dreamboats (I'm looking at you GNE!) then it's just daft. I genuinely don't think Max will attract any more people in Darlington, bit we'll have to wait and see.

(10 Jan 2015, 10:13 pm)passenger_10 wrote Both those articles are dated the 3rd July 2006? Peter Huntley died in a climbing accident in the Lake District in 2012.

I'm guessing the money back guarantee and the atomic clocks in the buses didn't work out... Certainly not ideas that Arriva have decided to pick up on. Giving money back to bus passengers is probably far too complicated to be practical, what about day tickets, returns, weekly tickets, cross operator tickets etc... Not to mention the guy doing the refunding is already at least 10 minutes late before having to start filling out forms and arguing with passengers.

(10 Jan 2015, 10:22 pm)citaro5284 wrote GNE vehicles are fitted with clocks.

(10 Jan 2015, 10:23 pm)Robert wrote Those grey clocks which are at the front of the bus just by the doors? I have noticed a few Lolynes and Presidents that dont have them.

(10 Jan 2015, 10:13 pm)passenger_10 wrote Both those articles are dated the 3rd July 2006? Peter Huntley died in a climbing accident in the Lake District in 2012.

I'm guessing the money back guarantee and the atomic clocks in the buses didn't work out... Certainly not ideas that Arriva have decided to pick up on. Giving money back to bus passengers is probably far too complicated to be practical, what about day tickets, returns, weekly tickets, cross operator tickets etc... Not to mention the guy doing the refunding is already at least 10 minutes late before having to start filling out forms and arguing with passengers.

(10 Jan 2015, 10:23 pm)Robert wrote Those grey clocks which are at the front of the bus just by the doors? I have noticed a few Lolynes and Presidents that dont have them.

(10 Jan 2015, 10:53 pm)Jimmi wrote The other day I said the announcements on the 1/5/5A were too loud, today I could barely hear them.

(10 Jan 2015, 10:52 pm)aureolin wrote But they do give passengers their money back? I was stuck on the A1 once, due to a breakdown on the 50. GNE added a new day ticket to my key card as means of an apology. That's not the first time they have either, and I've regularly received free day tickets, when I've had to write in. Agree that it's impractical to give cash back there and then though.


I think it's Lolynes or Presidents that have much smaller ones? But I know at least the Chester ones do have them.

With the new ETMs being in since that article was written, I'd be surprised if they haven't taken over the function? Surely capable of syncing with a time server.

(10 Jan 2015, 11:50 am)Jimmi wrote Apparently it won't be the old pink "Firth Moor Flyer" branding.

It was mentioned on here about some branding style but I can't remember what it was. Could be something similar to service 15 in Stockton?

I do think that the ex P&R Solos could be a squeeze for space on the 13A/B also it will mean the slightly larger Solos will have to do the likes of the 3/19.

(10 Jan 2015, 11:06 pm)JoshP wrote Cool so you have more info on this branding!? Will all the ex P&R solos be on the 13a/b?



I think the 2/11 should have a joint branding then the 12 has its own. 



I also think branding is a great thing! It makes the journey more personal. Town and out of town services could be branded, such as the 1, 5, 3, 19, 4, 75/76. But not the old pathetic branding that was applied a few years back. 

(10 Jan 2015, 11:16 pm)Jimmi wrote I don't really know any info on the branding, there was a post on here the other day that said something about them getting branding for the 13a/13b, I'm on mobile right now so can't find the post stating this.

There is not much more you can brand at Darlington as the 1/5/5A interwork, the 3/19 interwork too also there is not enough EcoCitys for the 2/11/12/12A since the 21/X21 started using EcoCitys too.

(10 Jan 2015, 11:31 pm)JoshP wrote I genuinely can't believe the state the 2/11/12 have become. The fact Arriva are taking an EcoCity off the 12, but everyday I see at least 2/3 Solos on the 2 and 11 it makes me wonder where the hell the EcoCities are. I reiterate my point from last year, purchase one more EcoCity and then the 12,11,2 and 21 are all fully EcoCity operated. It's beyond a joke that me and others are crammed on a number 2 Solo at afternoon peak time and struggle to disembark because of passenger numbers. 

(10 Jan 2015, 11:39 pm)IJimmi wrote I know its stupid on Thursday there was at least two Solos on the 12/12A and one on the 11.

I'm experiencing the same problem with the 5/5A, since the Darts have departed and lost 1410 & 1424 in exchange for two Omnicitys for MAX X26/X27 & X66 the 1/5/5A has had at least one Solo on every day, mind allocating a Pulsar to the 75/76 doesn't help. Also the X reg Darts are totally useless the 8/8A has had at least one MPD or Solo each day as they are so unreliable.