(06 Jan 2022, 1:09 pm)streetdeckfan wrote It's not all about how much profit they're making though, Arriva may be making more money, but they're also not making any investments into the services. So when the time comes to update the fleet they're going to have to spend big, and I'd guess very little of that profit has been staying within ANE for them to make those investments. GNE on the other hand, has been continually making investments in the fleet

Looking at Arriva County Durham's accounts, which went up yesterday, they went from making a gross profit of £6.2m to a loss of £4.5m, although due to government grants of £11m, they still made a profit of £1.3m, compared to GNE's overall loss of £4.6m since it seems GNE only received around £4.5m in government grants. 
I just skimmed them so feel free to double check!

True - it's not, but the profitability of any business will always determine the future of it.

In terms of ANE, again I agree that the fleet is in need of investment and that most of the profit generated will be squirrelled back off to Germany.  At some point that will change though, the lack of investment and general interest in Arriva by DB is purely because they want to sell and don't want spend.  With investment and interest, I personally see potential in large parts of ANE.