(17 Feb 2025, 9:47 pm)PH - BQA wrote I began to read the news articles on this as I made my journey home tonight, and the more I took in the more I found myself staggered that Go North East have fallen to this point. 

I sat on a relatively new, pleasant, Stagecoach Enviro 400 MMC in Eldon Square as I opened the BBC News article, while parked two stands along was Go North East's 6970. A bus which is unable to serve disabled passengers in bus stations. A bus which, at nearly 17 years of age, is working on the flagship route of the company which regularly boasts iitself as being the largest bus operator in the region. A bus which has the interior ambience of a ghetto. A bus which perfectly encapsulates the current mentality of the company, and those running it. 

Nigel Featham does not care for the front line employees of any company he has presided over. He does not care for the public who pay his rather hefty wage. He is a mercenary, with no interest other than lining the pockets of himself and those who facilitate his games. 

The more that this mess continues, however, it is also clear that those at GAG who have the power to fix the poisonous culture, which has grown inside GNE like an aggressive tumour, have no intention of doing so. The threat of a second strike in less than two years looms, and the management team responsible are all still in place. No lessons have been learnt. The specific issue here seems to stem from two key areas, staff morale and fleet age. Staff morale will take a large amount of time to repair, and it is evidently incredibly low at present. Fleet age is equally ominous, there has been no new vehicle purchased for 5 years outside of the 9 purchased with public money and there is no sign that this is about to change. 

There is no plan here, only mismanaged decline.

For an organisation that predominantly serves the North East of England, where between 12-17% of the population claim disability-related benefits (which is amongst the highest in the country, and that does not account for the many disabled people who do not claim benefits), the continued discrimination against disabled passengers and staff is simply unacceptable. The attitude that GNE appear to be presenting is nothing short of ableist. The evidence is all linked in blue and red.

But they get away with it. One of the North East's largest businesses are not being held to account by the media and local authorities, making an absolute mockery of decades of progress in equality and accessibility. What is Kim McGuinness and Martin Gannon going to do about this? Surely there is something that can be done? Or are the weak excuses, blaming everything and everyone else just going to continue?

What is it going to take for the local authorities to apply pressure onto Go-Ahead, to get this sorted out?