Comments regularly crop up on this forum and others regarding the quality and presentation of Go North East's fleet, but I would certainly suggest that some people seem to be wearing those rose tinted glasses, based on my five-minute experience of Arriva Durham's fleet yesterday.

I managed to spot "Sapphire" ADL Enviro400 7538 with an odd coloured panel and missing branding on the front of the bus, two "Sapphire" VDL Pulsars with odd coloured panels (one was 1524, with a rear offside corner panel a darker blue compared to the rest of the bus), Lowlander 7444 which was looking incredibly tatty, and Solo 2823 which was looking tatty and missing sections of paint on the front of the bus.

Not forgetting the fact that some of the "Sapphire" Wright Streetlites on service 22* still only display a route number on the rear destination display, despite being fitted with a full-size rear display. Arriva have gone to the expense of purchasing a large LED display, so it's pretty poor that the company's electricians haven't bothered to change the switch setting to allow the correct information to be shown. It's a two minute job!

* I didn't catch any fleet numbers, but I'm sure Big'un and BLM will know!