Just to add to what Bazza has said which I agree with. On the debate front, some of you seem to have an idea that there's not a cat in hell chance that Arriva will be able to sell it's North East depots. Do you really think that GoNorthEast will fly off the market aswell. It has a new fleet at some depots (which for an investor isn't particularly a good thing) and makes the least profit out the 3.

For an investor they want to buy something that has scope for improvement to make a gain in the future which in the case of Arriva is pretty much ideal, it currently makes a 6m profit with some new investment that could increase and if you really want to go there, there's scope for cuts which wouldn't dramatically impact the service (which I'd prefer not ofc). 43 to every 20 minutes for example. Similar story with Stagecoach where you could easily cut some services and there's scope for improvement. X63 to every 20 minutes for example.

GoNorthEast on the other hand doesn't really have much potential for cuts without damaging the services (it's pretty much a skeleton service as it is) and the core routes have new or refurbished buses on so there's no scope for improvement there. From an investors point of view it's not ideal and the newer buses will come with a price so it'll cost more to get it in the first place. 6m profit with potential (but needs investment soon) or 3.4m profit with little potential - only one is much attractive to an investor.

That's before you even bring in the discussion that Percy Main, Deptford, Peterlee and Washington (excluding the 20 and X1) are much weaker depots than any of the Arriva depots in the North East in terms of potential excluding maybe Jesmond.