Reading through this thread and from personal experience one thing is apparent, whilst the article in question is about GNE, the issue is industry wide and therefore the pay and conditions in the industry as a whole are in need of improvements to attract new staff and retain current staff.

I left Arriva to work at GNE. GNE paid more and it was closer to home plus minimum hours were higher. I had pay rises every year except last year. I recently had to change my contract to term time only (personal reasons) and as such had to take a pay cut (approx £20 per week) and now I'm on new starter rate (which for those interested is curreny £9.0442 per hour). Before being a bus driver I qualified as a teacher so essentially all that was chucked away to drive buses and coaches.

Alot of drivers seem to leave to drive HGVs where the money is (apparently) considerably more, no public to give you grief and no cash handling or ticket machines. I love driving but this has no appeal to me.