(2 hours ago)Shrek wrote As we're talking about what was said to elected officials who love to lie, I guess Arriva could get away with 25 "brand new" to Ashington deckers arriving, even if some are 10 years old. That's the politicians trick.

It will be interesting to see how things work out when all the movement is complete. Arriva was left in an absolute shambles by DB and replacing one third of the fleet this year is a hefty investment, and there's a lot of talk that more electrics could be on the cards as well (I wondered why the EV is still running daily from Blyth). Hopefully more movement of other vehicles can replace the worst that are limping on up north.

But the critics are correct that while that is all very positive, something needs to be done right now as current performance isn't good enough and for all the positives they are showing, they are still lacking ingenuity and basic determination to show a good customer service. Some short term measures need to be put in place.

I'm assuming the 6 "brand new" to Ashington extras you're referring to are the same as the ones I've heard, in which case I worry the 35 might see yet another decline in service reliability given how often those things are VOR. 

It is a hefty investment, and the talk of further electrics is encouraging. Mind, not sure if any ADL electrics would be overly positive - the demo seems very unreliable. The range on the Wright ones GNE are attempting to use on the 21 doesn't seem great either mind - more BYDs?

Agreed there needs to be immediate measures put in place. There have been swathes of vehicles withdrawn from elsewhere in the country recently - while they're not ideal they could surely plug a short term gap on local work (i.e the 1/2/57) to allow engineering to sort themselves out. It's a long time until summer, people won't come back when their bus is missing every day.