(13 Feb 2020, 9:12 pm)Jimmi wrote I have to agree about lack of ambition for trying new things especially routes, about the last real attempt Arriva gave a go at was the X1 from Darlington and that only happened as GNE introduced the competing OK1 service. About the only real changes in the last few years have been a few frequency increases and combining or altering of routes to make some form of improvements.

Arriva seem to be the worst for this atm, very little has changed and it feels as if nothing much is being done to combat the issues going on with things like timekeeping on routes, even with congestion increasing I still can't fathom why the Sapphire 7 seems to have so many issues sticking to time lately and is forever running in twos lately, the last month of service I've encountered from Arriva has been poor to say the least, nearly missed trains as a result of drivers crawling around the routes or just faffing about making services fall behind schedule or timetables that don't meet demands some of which I've expressed problems with for many years now.

Stagecoach has likely been the most ambitious recently with services of the big three with introducing the X24 plus that Saturday only X55 which didn't perform well but hey at least they gave it a go and of course that open top 'Seasider' service although must give GNE  a mention for the Toon Tour even if it was just a replacement of sorts for the City Sightseeing tour. Hodgsons has done a bit since picking up some North Yorkshire tendered work including adding some extra runs to those services. Arriva have lacked this I feel, closest I feel was the 57/57A/58 changes in Durham recently and that was only because Scarlet Band seemingly didn't want to run the 58 anymore.

I weirdly have to totally disagree with this from north of the Tyne in N Tyneside and SE Northumberland point of view. GNE is by far by a country mile the worst. Summary of it from around here's point view.

Arriva
Extended 57A to Ashington on Sundays which I believe is ran commercially now
51A to Holystone
43 extended to Morpeth
306 extension to Whitley Bay
New Blyth peak expresses
Experimented with later buses on X10/X11 (didn't work)
Extended 1 to Widdrington
Not many new buses recently bar the few for X21/X22 but nothing downgraded.
Talking tour on Seahouses summer buses.
No big cuts to services in past 5 years bar the odd early or late service.

Stagecoach (Not really their area).
Extended 22 and 1 to Cobalt
Seaside bus in North Tyneside

GoNorthEast
Extended the 1 to Metro Centre via the world but cut Kibblesworth in the process.
Extended 11 to Newcastle (didn't work).
Cut 309/10 to every 20 minutes.
Cut 9 from Sunderland to South Shields (5) which then got cut altogether.
Scrapped across town links with 58.
No new buses but Cobalt's refurbished.
Indigo / Little Coasters downgraded buses.
40/41/42/42A is about to get butchered - again.
11/19/40/41/42/42A only day time services since they've lost the night subsidies.
309 last bus getting earlier and earlier.
No mentionable improvements to services at all. Literally I can't think of one enhancement to timetables.

I guess it just depends on where you live on what people think. The Northumbria Arriva has always been more proactive that the Durham / Tees division though. I could imagine people in certain parts of Sunderland not having glowing reviews or either GNE or Stagecoach depending on the area.