(08 Feb 2025, 2:00 pm)Superman wrote Time will tell, but I guess all we can say is, I very much doubt this has been done by Arriva without consideration of all factors involved.
There could well be other, significant, mitigating factors that are not immediately obvious to the armchair network planners on this forum.
Arriva don’t exactly have the best track record of making positive changes to rectify service performance, multiple services across the NE are testament to that. As I previously pointed out, this particular change saves a total of 2 minutes in each direction which hardly seems worth it given all the extra changes and service downgrades which are required in response.
Of course there could be other factors, though realistically they’d need to include an order of some B8RLEs (or similar) to be able to reliably operate it - which given the changes commence in just over a months time, seems unlikely. Day one will inevitably be fine, and the two SDs allocated will complete the board, but longer term allocating lightweight vehicles near the end of their life to a demanding service is asking for trouble.
There’s nothing immediately apparent that would suggest any pressure will be taken off the 10:08 from Newcastle either.
Thinking back to many changes, across all operators, over the years, ‘armchair network planners’ on forums such as this have often been correct in their scepticism on service changes.