(01 Sep 2021, 12:10 am)mb134 wrote Overall it was an enjoyable day with good company. My initial impressions of Transdev were positive, and had I only sampled the CityZap and Witchway then I think I'd have had my expectations matched. In reality, however, past these core routes, the picture of Transdev Blazefield seems a little less rosy. B10BLEs chugging around on town work seems irresponsible, Y-reg B7TLs being given private plates and put onto services such as Pendle Wizz and Airedale seems off, and the appearance of quite a few of the vehicles certainly wasn't creating any desire (569/X569YUG as a prime example). I find the NE operators come in for, at times well deserved, criticism quite often for issues such as service provision or vehicle standards. We noted at a number of places on our travels today that towns were left with Sunday services of every 2 hours and last buses well before the Mon-Sat counterparts. Then in terms of vehicle standards, to compare to the NE, I often see criticism of ANE using 55-plate B7TLs on peak summer X93 workings - yet Transdev are using Y-reg B7s on things like Pendle Wizz and Airedale without so much as a word said...
I appreciate that all companies have positives and negatives, and don't get me wrong I think Transdev do a lot of things well, but there seems to be a belief in certain enthusiast bubbles that certain companies can do no wrong. Before today, from what I had seen on social media and forums such as this, I had an impression of Transdev Blazefield as being a transport company on the cutting edge. While that is true for a handful of routes, it is also far from the truth for what seems like a substantial part of the network. Having thought about it more, I think I'd honestly take any of the big three in the North East ahead of them.
Sounds like a good day out and a good experience of the Transdev network. I haven't done the network for some time now, but my thoughts were largely the same as yours, when I did do it in the past.
Transdev are extremely good at shouting about and promoting what they do really well; and to be fair, they should because it is really good. I'm yet to try CityZap or Witchway since the upgrades, but I know from doing Coastliner, the 36 and the Harrogate electrics, the products are well designed, eye-catching and generally provide a good experience. That being said, if your journey into work is one of the 20 year old B10BLEs running around Burnley, then reality just is not going to match your expectations, having seen the promotional work that Transdev put out.
I wrote similar in a recent blog post referring to Xlines. It's no good banding around slogans like GNE's 'Better than Ever' campaign, or overuse of the word 'amazing' like Transdev do, when it only relates to a small sample of your operation and you're unable to provide a consistent customer experience across your network. I get that money and investment comes into it, but first impressions are everything.