(30 Sep 2020, 6:45 pm)Storx wrote I know your trying to do this for competition reasons but Blyth, Jesmond and Ashington need to go to the same operator (and not GNE - they've already butchered N. Tyneside as it is). 

That's exactly what the CMA would want.

As others have said I'd rather have someone like Transdev personally to bring something new to the area who don't cut services all the time and are actually quite creative at times but aren't Arriva just getting floated on the stock exchange instead now anyway rather than sold..?

Redcar & Whitby would fit their profile a lot better and potentially tie in with their existing North Yorks Blazefield operations.

Also why would GNE want DB300's when they're all based at Blyth and already have Enviros in their fleet it makes no sense to bring a random bus into the fleet that they've never worked with and never will work with since Arriva own the VDL rights in the UK and the 308 ones can't move out of N. Tyneside anyway as they've had Euro 6 mods done.

Arriva's 7541-7552 in comparison to GNE's 6338-6355 are not to GNE's spec. Wrong seats, wrong length and wrong gearbox to start with. These would be perfect for Stagecoach particularly on tighter routes either in Newcastle or elsewhere. On the other hand, DB300's would fill the role perfectly fulfilled by GNE's B7TLs and OmniDekkas. Don't know if they'd cope with some of the more fierce parts of the X70/X71 though if they had to cover for a 'low height' decker on the X30/X70/X71 board haha!