(23 May 2022, 10:40 am)Jimmi wrote Must say action probs should've been taken sooner at Darlington as its been an absolute mess of an operation throughout much of this, looked like I drove past many customers stood waiting for the 5 towards Darlington that wasn't running on Saturday (although may have just been late running, didn't check).
Funny thing is, to some (myself included) the temporary X66 timetable is argubly an improvement, despite the longer journey time, its balanced out with a higher frequency to many although at the loss of service to Lingfield Point & Haughton Road.
Aye I've heard Darlington haven't been to clever. Not sure what's gone so wrong at both Darlington and Durham bar rather ironically they're the two depots which have always been the worst even before Covid especially fleet presentation.
No doubt there's serious problems behind the scenes which we aren't aware of which seem to blight GNE aswell where there's all sorts of morale issues being leaked constantly especially from Consett which is one of the worst depots. The other 5 Arriva depots have generally done well especially Ashington, Stockton and Redcar don't believe there's been any issues with them 3 at all. For balance Percy Main and Hexham at GNE are the same.
I was thinking the X66 might've been popular for some for those reasons mind, must admit I don't know the route too well but I'd much rather have a slightly longer 20 minute service than a faster 30 minute service.