(06 Aug 2021, 5:39 pm)Adrian wrote I think its refreshing to hear his attitude towards growth and passenger numbers, compared to others in the industry. A lot of talk about moving forward and encouraging growth, rather than standing still with the same tired old system.

I agree with Martijn. GNE could easily sit around and not invest in marketing, vehicles and branding. They could also not cut routes to "keep the small minority of punters" happy. But at what cost? Would that be sustainable in the long term? 

To put it in a context (and I do have some sympathy to an extent), the only decent deckers Arriva Northumbria have are the 17 plate Sapphires at Ashington and probably the 14 plate Sapphires if they haven't been shot regularly standing in on the Alnwick / Berwick 'X' routes. The youngest decker at Blyth depot (where some of their alleged 'goldmine' routes run from) is soon to be 10 year old! 

Arriva might be making a profit but at somepoint, the old vehicles that "do just fine" and "at least turn up" will need replacing. Where will Arriva / DB get the capital from and how can they sustainably replace them?

If anything, Arriva could take a leaf out of GNE's book and actually run a sustainable operation that's customer friendly too and even deliver some benefits. Prime example being a restructure of the X7/X8/X9/X10/X11. If Arriva somehow replaced the southern part of the X8 and introduced a new 'X' for the Northern part eventually combining with the X10/X11 between Cramlington and Newcastle, that would be an instant win with faster journeys.