(19 Jul 2020, 11:19 pm)mb134 wrote The issue with Durham, in my experience at least, is that they don't even seem to make an effort to route brand correctly. With Blyth and Jesmond you can tell in the morning that they've generally tried the best they can (even if it's just the brand, and specific route branding is still all over the place), but throughout the day they prioritise service punctuality levels over anything else.
Durham always seem to just put out whatever they fancy. When I got the 6 the other day, both 7456 and 7494 were on there - neither even branded, let alone "Sapphire". 7519 and 7521, Sapphire E400s, were on the MAX 48/X46, alongside 7455, ONE(!) X46 B7TL and then a handful of single decks. The X12 (MAX) that day had, from Durham, two standard spec Pulsars (1409/1510), two Sapphire Pulsars (1517/1524) and a Streetlite (1596), and one MAX Pulsar (1482). This isn't one or two incorrectly allocated buses, it's leading drivers and depot management giving the bare minimum and having zero pride in the work they're doing.
Arriva Durham County, generally bar Stockton, have always seemed to operate at a lower standard than Northumbria have - be it in vehicle appearance, driver friendliness or pride in what they're doing. That's by no means to say Northumbria are always good at those things I've mentioned, but from a passengers perspective I always feel more welcomed by drivers north of the Tyne - and that the buses operated by those depots have a bit more TLC.
Finally, a thread where I can bash Arriva to my hearts content!
I'll start by saying that I lived in a GNE area for most of my life, only really moving into Arriva territory about 5 years ago, but even then still mainly used GNE.
I think using GNE I've only ever had two bad experiences, admittedly one of them was a pretty bad experience (one of their drivers was very abusive to me and got the typical "we'll pass your comments onto the depot" response from customer service), but with Arriva their drivers just always seem to be miserable, and acting as thought they're being forced to work there.
I've been on several buses where drivers could barely speak English, and one had never heard of Tindale Crescent, even though they were driving the 6.
Drivers standing smoking at the door, even standing in the door smoking so they don't get wet when it's raining.
That's not to say they don't have any nice drivers, they do, but in my experience the ratio of good to bad just seems to be leaning far more to the bad side than it does with GNE.
As for the buses, I'd honestly be very surprised if any of them have seen some disinfectant during this crisis, they're still as dirty as they were before.
They seem to refurbish them and then forget about them, if a seat gets torn, they'll just put some duct tape on it rather than repair it properly, seat backs melted and covered in graffiti, you'll be lucky to find a USB port that hasn't either got paper wedged in it, or been completely destroyed.