(19 Jun 2020, 10:48 pm)L469 YVK wrote Moving forward out of the current situation, how are Arriva going to adapt?

As I was driving to work the other day, I seen an ex London "MAX" B7TL broken down at Brunton Park on the X10.

I know I'm probably going to get shot down saying this but I do think that once social distancing measures are a thing of the past, maybe now is the time that Arriva need to scale back their operations and run as a leaner and fitter outfit focusing on quality over quantity.

They do some things better than GNE (local routes) but for their key services, they need to start seriously investing and doing things properly.

For Jesmomd, Blyth and Ashington, they could easily reduce the PVR by 11 vehicles.

51/51A & 306 & 308 (PVR reduced by 4) :
- As previously suggested in suggestion thread.

X9/X10/X11 (PVR reduced by 4) :
- X10 & X11 reduced to every 30 minutes each.
- X9/X10/X11 re-timed to form an up to every 10 minute service from Blyth, Cramlington Shops, Regent Centre, Gosforth and Newcastle. Blyth frequency split would be 9-11-10 and Cramlington Shops 8-12-10.
- X7 & X8 go back to previous arrangements with PVR 10.

X21/X22 (PVR reduced by 3):
- X21 & X22 reduced to every 30 minutes each.
- X21 reduced to hourly between Ashington & Newbiggin with Newbiggin runs interworking with service X19.
- X19 as previously suggested introduced.

I personally don't see what the issue is with Arriva Northumbria's express network personally quality wise. Just because they're not painted bright pink with some stupid tagline on the side doesn't make them worse. I'd personally take Arriva's Gemini's anyday over any Streetdeck / Streetlite or Enviro, they're just a much better quality product without rattles everywhere even known they're 11 year old now.

I can also guarentee (any normal person) would find frequency a hell of a lot more important than the buses used. Decreasing a bus from 20 minutes to 30 minutes can make a hell of lot of a difference to someones commute for example if the buses are currently 05, 25, 45; that person may get a bus at 05 minutes past which gets them in just in time for work with the reduction they make choose to go for 15, 45; the hour for buses which increases their commute by an additional 20 minutes every day; enough to make them move to another type of travel.

Wifi, USB charger, Gold bus handles and whatever stuff you could think of won't overcome the extra 20 minute commute, especially if it occurs in both directions. The majority of the X10/X11 passengers come from beyond Cramlington or are travelling to Cramlington from those points.

If you really must play around with reducing the PVR there's other bus routes you could mess around with better than those ones.

43 - Do you really need 4 buses an hour there plus the 8 buses express?
46 - Merge it with one of 43/44/45?
55 - Does it need to be every 15 minutes with mini buses?
47 - Could you run it with something else ie. 52 then have a connection to Freeman on same service?
X8 - Could you make it quicker for those from Cowpen etc to Newcastle?
306 Whitley -> Tynemouth - Move this to the 57 and give Tynemouth etc a link to the new hospital and at the same time give SE Northumberland a link to the beaches and Monkseaton a link to Tynemouth Morrisons?