(17 May 2014, 7:21 pm)Marcus wrote I think a lot of Arriva Durham's older drivers have continued on with the firm having been employed during United's tenure (in my opinion, I think United, although before my time, were an excellent company, and I prefer the name United to Arriva), but a lot of the younger drivers are probably just doing it because they want extra money for further education etc, while I think a lot of the middle aged drivers can be quite rude.

I don't want to sound hypocritical, but a lot of the slightly more overweight Arriva drivers have been ignorant with me in the past. A few that are the exact opposite have even pulled the ticket out of the machine for me. In my opinion, the ex-United drivers are the best ones.

I don't know what it's like at Darlington or Stockton, but that's what I think of Arriva Durham's drivers. I'm glad I got that off my chest

Most of the Darlington drivers are alright, especially the Sapphire ones, but there are a few awful ones. My least favourite Darlington driver makes all the OAPs put their pass on the card reader the correct way up, makes everyone sit until the bus has completely stopped and he always looks and sounds like he's been slapped repeatedly with a wet fish. I swear this driver has something against me, I had him on the old 8A and I was about to board the bus because I thought he was ready but he very angrily shouted "WAIT!" then eventually got on the bus. I wanted to get off this bus at Newton Aycliffe Tesco because I was going to catch Scarlet Band Service 16 because I didn't want to walk home in the pouring rain, so then I rang the bell then he drove past the stop then stopped just before the roundabout and he angrily spouted that he did not stop there (even though he did) he didn't open the doors whilst he spouted this argument, then he did open the doors and I had to step in the mud and frantically run for the 16 which had pulled in behind. This experience left me badly shaken, I never left the house for days and I was scared of getting on a bus for about a fortnight.