(11 Sep 2015, 4:45 pm)DaveyBowyer wrote Arriva seriously need to invest more money into their MAX and Sapphire routes if they want them to work. OK, perhaps the 57 plates have been performing better since Ecnospeed was removed but, the whole allocations across the North East look very scrappy from the 57 plate Sapphires to constant off route vehicles to even some routes (X7, X8, X12) even using single deckers for some runs that require double deckers and allocating Ex London refurbished buses to the X20 is not going to do a service with potential any favors. Arriva need to do the following:

- Order new buses for the key MAX and Sapphire routes to allow cascades to take place.
- Amend all timetables to ensure that services are running as close to time as possible.
- NO refurbished Ex London deckers for main workings (bar peak time extras), all buses used should be to a good standard!
- NO more first buses of the morning sneaking out of Blyth depot late and starting to get into problems around Newsham area etc.
- Adequate spare vehicles to ensure consistency and prevent brand dilution.
- Tighter controls on odd workings to ensure that these are rectified as soon as possible and kept to a minimum.
- NO drivers plodding along against favorable road and traffic conditions. All drivers to drive to the road and traffic conditions in a legal and safer manner whilst keeping the service as close to time as possible.