(19 Jul 2020, 11:56 pm)Storx wrote I was down Durham the way other month thought and was shocked at how mankey some of the buses are it's definitely noticeable that. Remember when the Gemini's ran on the X12 and getting off one of Blyths and onto one of Durham's you'd think the buses we're 10 years apart in age. It's probably why I have very different opinions to Arriva to some on here.

Yep. Just to backup my comment on drivers - I had to get the X18 down from Berwick yesterday as I'd been up there over the weekend visiting family over the border. At Berwick Rail Station I had a 3-4 minute conversation with the driver prior to departure (he also looked up whether or not there'd be an X15 to connect with in Alnwick to make my journey quicker), then when we got to Alnwick he wished all passengers a safe and enjoyable remainder of their journey - even coming upstairs to make sure we were all okay, and letting us know our next driver would be along in a couple of minutes. 

Mainly using Ashington buses, even if majority of drivers wouldn't go that far, there are a good few who you can always have a quick conversation with when getting on/off. My experience with Durham drivers has always just been them grunting at whatever greeting/thank you I've given. 

Then looking at the buses - last week I had some things to do down in Durham, so I got the 43 through to Newcastle which was 7488 (while not Sapphire spec, it was clean with very presentable moquette and felt reasonably new inside), then a Durham Sapphire Streetlite (1596) down on the X12. The seats were dirty, there window ledges hadn't been tended to in a while, the plugs were broken and the emergency exit door had my head done in by Gateshead.

Similar to you, it's why I have a hugely different opinion on Arriva to most people. Even beyond that I could never imagine Durham, for example, managing to cope with running the X14/15/18 that Ashington do - their vehicles seem shot most of the time on town/city work.