I'm also aware of the fact that GNE is not the only company frequently altering services - Arriva always seem to be doing it north of the Tyne, but my comment was in relation to Dan saying GNE have a strategy, which it doesn't seem to. Look at the number of times buses are repainted or buses rebranded without any thought of what was to happen to that brand like when OmniCitys, for example, were branded Toonlink only a month or two before the brand changed routes -  the X30/1 therefore had to be Toonlink as well as the unrelated 12/12A to justify the repainting. I don't take much interest in Stagecoach, only really knowing a bit about their Teesside operations and, as I've said before, thought Arriva are pretty rubbish, although they seem to have been improving  over the last few years, whilst GNE seem to have been declining. I don't know enough about Arriva, especially north of the Tyne, to know if their regular changes are in fact cuts. The latest Go Ahead report did say however that their North East operations are experiencing difficulties which have affected corporate financial results this year.