(21 Nov 2019, 10:20 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Even still, those stops you mention have a bus leaving to Gateshead every few minutes. I think the main issue in these situations is the lack of communication, it would be good if there was a way for delays or cancellations to be communicated to passengers waiting at stops. This is why I think smart displays at stops should be rolled out, even if it's just an e-ink display in place of the regular timetable

The upside with GNE is that the buses have radio communication so it's possible for control to tell the drivers that passengers may board with the incorrect ticket, but Arriva don't have this luxury. I've even had drivers in the past stop at my stop to tell me that another service has been cancelled

I still have to disagree. Even in that case, unless your at the bus stop 10 minutes early by the time you get realise you need to get a different bus and get on the bus. The original bus you we're meant to get will have gone from Gateshead anyway so your just waiting there for the 15 minutes or whatever instead. You might aswell wait around and be pissed off but save the bother.

As much as Arriva get things wrong I think swapping drivers and having breaks so they can regulate the buses and swap things around to keep things on time at terminus' is one of their better things. Simple fix, ditch sub branding where they know they do it especially at Jesmond with Sapphire, Max, and the Green buses all doing 3 bus routes they know they switch around. Similar at Blyth with the X7 - X11 and 308 and have one brand for the lot.

One thing I would say would be better regulation of buses. The amount of times you see 1, 2 or even 3 buses of the same bus route following each around rather than turning one back and/or running one out of service only dropping people off or telling them to get on the bus behind to get them back ontime. Stagecoach is by far the worst for this on the 1 and 62/63 in particular but you see it quite often on the 21, 56 and X1 aswell.