(13 Nov 2022, 9:04 pm)Storx wrote Not much to add what mb134 said so I'd just be parroting.I think we all know the situation with GNE to be fair but they must see some value keeping it for some reason or another?
One thing though is it'll be interesting to see what happens with Percy Main long term as they don't particularly have any work lately and I can't imagine there will be many people who want to run school buses which are the worst.
They've only really got the 1, 19, 309/310/311 and 41/41A now and they could lose the 1 in the evenings and 19 in whole if the contracts go wrong. The wages between the two aren't miles apart now either being £12.65 at Arriva vs £12.83 at GNE according to latest job adverts so that could be a positive for people picking Arriva not to mention the chore of urban work with Stagecoach which won't be some people's cup of tea. There's some drivers who are happily paid less on the minibus rota at Ashington to stay away from Newcastle.
But the question given Blyth / Ashington plus driver shortages, is are the 47 and 50's worth keeping or binning off come March and letting Nexus tender out to GCT/Stagecoach/GNE?
Regarding MB134's post, if Arriva bin the 47 and 50's off (and give the 685 fully to Stagecoach), that'll leave a suitable number of drivers to adequately cover Blyth & Ashingtons work including 306/308 boards and the 43/44/45. Therefore the reliability issues on the 43/44/45 would be sorted with a suitable number of drivers available to cover.