Historically, I'd always ranked the local big three as 1. GNE, 2. Stagecoach, 3. Arriva. I'd always loved GNE's forward looking approach to vehicles, marketing, networks and ticketing. I'd harboured a grudging respect for Stagecoach's corporatism and Day Rider, and I'd never seen anything I like about Arriva, dreading any journey that included them.

Latterly, I've been surprised how my thoughts have changed....

I have recently had to use Arriva a lot, on many different services, and have found their punctuality excellent, vehicles fair to good, the app surprisingly useful (once you get used to it), and the routes, timings, fares and ticketing options quite reasonable given their operating constraints. All you can really criticise them for is the haphazard use of branding, but that seems to be a problem affecting all operators three days, assuming the reason is the recent ructions. I am not too sure, but they also seem to be the least reluctant to start hacking off bits of their network to save a penny, but perhaps others know different.

GNE has gone way down in my eyes, having seemingly forgotten all the things that made them good, but not so much that they have a better way of doing things now, the resulting hybrid of a bit of the same and yet some changing ways being a sad and almost delusional look, as seems to have been observed here. Their network seems to be crumbling, their marketing, in practice and conception, seeming to be as bad if not worse than Arriva of the present day. And they can't really blame Covid either, since the decline began way before that, and yet they're in possession of the same advantages/drawbacks as Arriva and Stagey, and arguably have a stronger local position from which to leverage efficiencies and new opportunities.

Stageoach's decline is the most depressing to me. A stable network isn't worth much if the routes, timings and connection opportunities aren't as good as they could be. They can't blame urban congestion for all of their increasingly poor time keeping, with notably Arriva seeming to be able to do more with less, but they seem to think the punters are mug enough to believe it. The new corporate livery and growth strategy is frankly absurd, the worst of a world where the three companies seem determined to be the worst at this very basic aspect of running buses (in essence, livery and offer). The DayRider just seems to be less of a good deal and more of a con trick these days. The buses have steadily gone from a well turned out relatively modern fleet, to the embarrassment of the region. The loss of WiFi seems to personify everything that the current Stagecoach offer represents (i.e. we know you don't have any better options, so F You).

What a world to live in, where Arriva is the best local offering. And to be clear, Arriva's offering is poor enough in my eyes for the haphazard use of branding alone, to seriously contemplate the horror of a publicly managed just about good enough not really run for the customer in the ways of counts (treating their needs as priority one, two and three) but at least subsidised by car drivers Manchester style monopoly.

Depressing.