(06 Jan 2020, 12:44 am)OrangeArrow49 wrote The bus will never compete with the car, a taxi or app-based service like Uber. Buses have their place, but are not true competition, and they never will be.
 
Customer service is poor on Stagecoach and outstanding on GNE in my experience, broadly speaking. However there has been good customer service on Stagecoach and poor customer service on GNE. GNE customer service is good on social media and live chat as far I know. Arriva has a reputation for poor customer service, but I never use Arriva so won't comment too much. Gateshead Central Taxis has terrible customer service and Stanley Travel has outstanding customer service.  Customer service is clearly inconsistent within the companies, and the industry. There is work to be done for certain. Buses will never be perfect, and will never be the best way to commute.

Though arriva has a bad reputation I disagree with that and think arriva is the best company in the North East since I've been using them more in the last month. Generally I think arriva's buses are a lot cleaner. In blyth when I get the 309 and the buses are quite messy whereas on arriva the buses are often relatively clean and arriva have some polite drivers as today for example me and my freind were going for the X8 but as we reached the traffic lights he shut his doors but lucilly my freind got their when he was stuck at the stop at a red traffic light and blocked in by cars he opened his doors for an old couple and my freind and then agreed for to wait for me getting across the road which is when the green man came on conviniently and I got on the bus. Where as in December I was running for the 309 and my freind tried to get the driver to wait for me and told the driver I was at the traffic lights and the driver told my freind he was late and "couldn't" wait and left me for 15 minutes on the rain yet when I got to blyth on the next run he was just sat reading the newspaper so he mustn't have been too late. though GNE invest arriva are clean and have mostly polite drivers they also have better looking buses e.g sapphire, MAX, Corp, Whitby P&R, frequenta & NHS (1499)