Jimmi certainly didn't paint a pretty picture of Arriva's services on Teesside today - but I'm not one to tar the company with the same brush due to bad experiences on one specific service.It was more County Durham where I had the problems today, and the 21 that was late this morning usually arrives in Aycliffe early and we all know the reliability of the X1 is often poor, the only problem I had on Teesside was the large amount of traffic service 5 got stuck in and was heavily loaded with school children.
When I have had to use services 23/24 outside of Tyne & Wear in the past, I've had no major issues. By and large, the services have been on time. My experiences with other Arriva services are limited, but are similar to services 23/24. Time-keeping did seem to be an issue on the Quorum Express, though this has seemed to improve after umpteen amount of changes (which I still hear passengers complaining about).
I've always found the attitude of most drivers to be unpleasant, though this is replicated across all three operators. I do feel that bus drivers are under-paid for what they have to go through on a day-to-day basis, which could in part explain the poor customer service given by these drivers.
Branding is a major issue for Arriva at the moment, now more than ever as there is a growing 'hierarchy' of services: Sapphire > MAX > Normal. The mis-allocation of buses really does need to be nipped in the bud.
Of course, we all know my thoughts and feelings on the lack of knowledge some drivers have of the ticketing options in Tyne & Wear, and I needn't elaborate, as I've done that one to death!
Most times I've used the 24 in County Durham it has been alright occasionally only a few minutes late, apart from the time the 24 left Peterlee Bus Station 6 MINUTES EARLY!!! which meant I had to sit in Peterlee Bus Station in the freezing cold for over 30 minutes.