(07 Dec 2015, 12:12 pm)Greg in Weardale wrote To the majority of people the X66/67 changes will be seen as a improvement and Arriva have added resources to the service. Obviously a few people will have been adversely affected - those living on the parts old route whose frequency was 20 minutes, and perhaps those on some other route (I don't really take much notice of Arriva services east of Middlesbrough) who may have had a route cut or withdrawn to provide these extra resources - me being cynical, but usually one increase is accompanied by another decrease. We have to accept that the bus industry is a business and routes must be viewed commercially, but there must be a balance between this and providing an overall SERVICE and the needs of the passenger must be seen as the most important aspect. I'm against franchising, Quality Contracts, or anything taking away the ability of companies to provide the commercial services they wish, but there must be an element of responsibility and public service. That is where there needs to be partnership between local authorities and operators.
There was no other cut to go along with the X66/X67 being increased, just a single extra vehicle resource added to the route, though it did replace the service 6 between Stockton & Hartburn.
(07 Dec 2015, 12:24 pm)Dan wrote I think you'll find citaro5284 and I were making tongue-in-cheek comments regarding the withdrawal of this trip, as it had previously been suggested that Arriva and Stagecoach (unlike Go North East) have stable networks and don't chop away at individual trips which aren't profitable... Nothing to do with Go North East staff suggesting "everything Arriva does is bad" at all.
I'd take a more reliable bus service which requires connections over an unreliable service every day of the week. I suspect the majority of customers on this route feel the same way, as I've seen very few complaints about this amendment. Even users of this forum who live in Lanchester have been in favour of this change.
Arriva's network is far from stable! Not even close by Stagecoach standards