tbh I think it would be better to look at it on depot to depot basic rather than as a company as a whole. All 3 seriously vary between each other big time depending on which one were talking about.

Just to pick Arriva out; Ashington, Blyth and Stockton are generally very good, generally alright fleet presentation and as you say good reliability but then you have Durham and Darlington which are the complete opposite; buses which are in shocking condition, cancellations constantly and are generally just poor with inappropriate allocations in particular at Darlington with Solo's running routes than should be double decker.

It's the same with Stagecoach really; Walkergate is generally alright but then you have Hartlepool which is the dumping ground of everything that no-one wants. I don't know Stockton too well but from what I've seen it seems to be generally alright bar the few MAN's they've inherited for the Euro 6 zone up in Newcastle.

GNE is just a mess throughout though with bad management imo and a serious big morale issue. Percy Main and Hexham being generally better than the Southern depots though, CLS / Washington by far the worst because of the strike action pretty much. GNE have the best marketing though which cover up the cracks, in particular service cuts which have been going for years. In the past 15 years, North Tyneside has gone from a GNE dominant area with some Arriva routes to an Arriva area with barely no GNE routes at all.