(17 Feb 2014, 1:10 pm)Chris wrote Just out of curiosity, which is better from a drivers point of view: The variety of a general rota, or the familiarity of a route-specific rota? Anyone know if GNE & Stagecoach do the same?

Go North East have specific business units at each depot - services like the TEN and Toon Link will belong to one business unit, and only certain drivers will be able to operate the services in this business unit.

This means that drivers can be completely familiar with a few services - know the zone boundaries inside and out, know where a stop may be that a passenger requests which a driver from another business unit may not be able to identify, etc...

If it's a rather small business unit, passengers can get to know their drivers too. When the Tynedalexpress was first marketed, something along the lines of 'Driven by your friendly local drivers at Hexham depot' was something said.