(21 Jan 2025, 10:44 pm)lewisparker1509 wrote im gonna hold my hands up and say i originally didnt like dan, but you're right he's probably the most decent one there. i've came to realise that when dan was at GNE, he's always been a good bloke, he was just sticking up for the wrong company. and now, northstar is doing absolutley bits (in a good way obvs) and i hope he gets some north tyneside/newcastle contracts. did the 643 for the first ever time in my life just before the new year (never even done it with previous operators), and i've never enjoyed being on an ALX so much in my life. buses: pristine, staff: sound as a pound, timekeeping; haven't seen one major complaint yet! GNE could never!

i fully understand why he was sticking up for gne so much tho, im assuming he wanted to get higher up the ladder to make it a better company, its just a shame he wasn't able to.

i honestly believe, if dan was able to get to the very top of GNE say a few year back to turn it around, franchising wouldn't even be a conversation right now.

i do agree and accept its not just GNE with this issue, but the amount of complaints and issues compared to stagecoach is unreal

To be fair I can't fault anyone backing their work up. GNE wasn't really that bad back then. I know a lot of people blame Featham but I don't actually think he's the real problem. Personally I think the problem is above him. If the group won't give you money and want you to make cuts then you can argue he's doing a 'good job.' When he had money at Arriva he wasn't that bad really it's only when that tap ran out with the DB issues it went South there aswell. 

GoNorthEast has gone down hill big time since the Aussies took over and they seem to be more bothered about servicing their debt rather than actually running a decent bus service

I've heard that Go East Anglia isn't much better either. 

iSquared and the new Stagecoach owners seem to be in for the long run so don't seem to be cutting as much. Credit to Stagecoach they've pretty much dealt with everything fine in recent years and recovered from COVID well.