(21 Mar 2024, 11:10 am)cbma06 wrote Does anyone know of the background work he’s done in the past before joining GNE?

Daniel has previously enjoyed excellent spells with Stagecoach Bluebird/North Scotland, and First Aberdeen after joining the industry through First’s Graduate Recruitment programme. He has led several major business projects including network and product improvements, new partnerships with businesses and local authorities, and the integration of an electric vehicle fleet in Aberdeen.

First Aberdeen has been cut after cut for years, it's a shadow of the network that was in place 10 years ago. Routes and links totally gone, totally unsuitable vehicles. Not sure how much of that is down to an unwillingness from the company to properly resource things though. 

In terms of Bluebird, I used the 727 almost daily when I was up there. It was on a 10 minute frequency and always very busy (and used for local travel as much as the competing First services along the same corridor, despite it being an Airport bus). It's now down to a 15 minute frequency, and I'm sure it was every 20 minutes for a while though I might be wrong. Outside of that and the 59, their other services were into Aberdeenshire and I assume a fair chunk were subsidised so I'm not too sure how much impact could be had. That said, things like the Westhill and Portlethen/Stonehaven corridors have been messy for some time. 

Obviously I'm not sure on when he worked at either of those operators and what changes he has been involved in, but overall First Aberdeen in particular isn't a great example of growth/network improvements.