(04 Feb 2021, 6:11 pm)Storx wrote I'm sorry but the upgrades to WiFi and other stuff doesn't account for the cuts that GNE have done in certain areas and I agree with Andreos1 strongly.
Looking at North Tyneside alone in the last 5 years, you can slate Arriva as much as you want but the damage one operator has done to the area outweighs the other 2 considerably. To just to give a quick summary to prove my point.
StagecoachArriva
- Extended 1 to Cobalt
- Extended 22 to Cobalt
- New 22X to Cobalt
- New buses 39/40/62/63
- Reduced service 18 from Forest Hall
- Reduced 1 from Four Lane Ends
- All evening and Sunday services ran by Stagecoach
GoNorthEast
- Extended 306 to Whitley
- Extended 51A to Holystone
- No new buses
- No reductions bar a few very late evening services.
- All evening and Sunday services ran by Arriva
It's all good having a hub and spoke network but when the hubs are dominated by operators who aren't the spokes then it's no wonder the spokes are failing miserable. (Whitley / Shields, Arriva dominate - Wallsend, Stagecoach dominate). It's all good refurbishing and upgrading buses on the same handful of bus routes (20, 21, X21, Consett expresses, X9/X10, 4, 53/54, 56, X1 etc) but for someone who doesn't live on those routes there's no incentive at all to use GNE especially when your bus changes route or timetable every other week with no upgrades at all (Sunderland, North Tyneside and South Shields networks) bar it's now not a 15 year old Omnicity it's now a 10 year old Versa instead (which are much worse).
- Repainted some panels and changed seat covers on B9TL's
- Retrimmed Quaylinks
- Few extra evening 19 services to Cramlington
- Reduced 309/310 to every 20 minutes
- Reduced 1 to every 20 minutes
- Lost links from Gateshead and beyond from Coast Road and Battle Hill (58)
- Downgraded the buses on 11/41/42
- No new buses that are still here
- Butchered the 40/41 in half
- Scrapped half of the 42 (tax payers now paying for it).
- Most evening and Sunday services paid by the tax payer and not ran by GNE
Some excellent points here which really ram home how operators are working (or were working) prior to the pandemic.
Once people remove the apparent glitz and glamour or take off the rose-tinted specs, things can be pretty poor.