(13 Nov 2022, 5:23 pm)L469 YVK wrote I think pre-covid, GNE had a fairly sensible strategy.
XLines, "key" routes branded and corporate for anything else. Then during the recovery, things got a bit too "whacky" (Sunderland & District etc) rather than sticking to the basics.
XLines should've been made genreric though.
To give Arriva's Northumbria operation credit, things were quite stable during covid except the brief shortages at Jesmond depot and during the subsequent jobs market, managed to retain drivers until recently but now don't know how they'll fare after shutting Jesmond down.
I do think if GNE's driver numbers recover, I could see them exploiting the gap north of Newcastle if Arriva's numbers don't recover.
As for the rest of the ex Jesmond work bar the 306, maybe a situation like March 2022 & GNE in North Tyneside, where Arriva abandon the routes (51, 52, 53, 54, 55) and Nexus & NCC go out to tender with GCT & Stagecoach picking them up in some form or another.
That'll then be Arriva's driver numbers sorted.
What's your obsession with GNE 'exploiting North of Newcastle'. It would be nice for them to run their own services (11/12 (tunnel), 19, 51 (307), 317, 335, 342) without the tax payer having to foot the bill of them all.
Also X-lines utterly sucked. It replaced brands which were easily recognisable with something that was a copy of Stagecoach Gold / Arriva Sapphire 10 years too late (ironic both those are now scrapped). Every X-Lines route has had a service reduction. Blaming Covid is a crap excuse and some of them are quite severe aswell.
X20 - 100%
X84/X85 - 100%
X6/X7 - 50%
X9/X10 - 50%
X30/X31 - 50%
X70/X71 - 50%
X45/X46 - 50% (67% if you include the X47)
X1 - 33%
X21 - No Evenings
'Great' success that.
Compare that to Arriva Northumbria MAX / Sapphire which sucks as it's Arriva:
X21/X22 - No Change Sun - Fri, 33% Saturday
X10/X11 - 33%
306/308 - No Change Sun - Fri, 33% Saturday
X7/X8/X9 - No Change
X20 - No Change
X14 - Service Increase (acknowledge subsidy)
X15 - No Change
X16 - 100%
X18 - No Change
GNE can stay well away from around here for me with it's constant cutting exercises with it's fancy paint jobs to brainwash enthusiasts. If this was Arriva there would be outcry.