(16 Aug 2021, 6:11 pm)L469 YVK wrote Well it's surely more exciting than getting to the point of being unable to sustainably & reliably deliver a service to customers even on the major trunk routes because of an aging fleet.
Blyth depot's youngest decker will be 10 year old come December / January not forgetting that they're a lightweight vehicle type. God knows what's happening at Jesmond and at Ashington, the Alnwick/Berwick 'X' routes are in need of an upgrade.
How are Arriva going to do achieve the above? Only way they can (unless they just stick a plaster over the issue with ex-London cascades by large) will be to cut and streamline their network.
You do realise investments and cutting services aren't connected.
The fact Arriva made a profit before the pandemic puts it in a much better place than GNE. If Arriva bought new buses then the cost of them would be offset from the benefits to customers and potential growth.
From an investors point of view GNE is by far the weakest out the three as there's no ability to grow the business and it doesn't make a profit anyway hence the only thing they can do is cut cut cut.
Funnily even known Arriva is so bad they've won the bus wars in both North Tyneside and Peterlee and they've done absolutely nothing, imagine if they actually done something what they could do.