"A Big Thumbs Up"

[Adam 404]

Give your opinion of this: https://www.arrivabus.co.uk/midlands/Latest/Staffordshire-Customers-Give-a-Big-Thumbs-Up/
Have they "improved"
Are they really "Fantastic"

[winston]

The customer satisfaction survey was from 2014 & press release from 9 months ago, there's been a whole host of changes (cuts) since then

[Adam 404]

The customer satisfaction survey was from 2014 & press release from 9 months ago, there's been a whole host of changes (cuts) since then

Would you say it may of gone Down Hill since then?

[winston]

Would you say it may of gone Down Hill since then?

Only by going off the comments on here & further service changes, I would say so yes! 

[Trident 4609]

Would you say it may of gone Down Hill since then?

Ask @Bob lol. He'll tell you!

[Bob]

Spose the evidence speaks for itself.  If they were great and fantastic  ( especially in the west midlands and cannock )ppeople would choose them and all their new commercial routes wouldn't be the epic failures that they are.  Either that or whoever is responsible for route launches and the choice of where they run them is completely inept. :-)

[BK63 YWP]

Africa needs to invest a bit more in certain parts of their network but aren't a bulk of their services especially around Stafford/some cannock routes subsidised by SCC? I guna be blunt I feel arriva is a good company. I have never felt let down by their services. I also use arriva Yorkshire and the amount of invest they have put into that area is a lot. New sapphire routes, arriva max (will the midlands get it's own version @BN (in your opinion). Quite a modern fleet. Like their Optare Spectras and their Geminis

[Bob]

Africa needs to invest a bit more in certain parts of their network but aren't a bulk of their services especially around Stafford/some cannock routes subsidised by SCC? I guna be blunt I feel arriva is a good company. I have never felt let down by their services. I also use arriva Yorkshire and the amount of invest they have put into that area is a lot. New sapphire routes, arriva max (will the midlands get it's own version @BN (in your opinion). Quite a modern fleet. Like their Optare Spectras and their Geminis

Not much subsidy in Cannock any more. NX won several evening tenders & arriva had a breakdown excuse the pun and ran them for no subsidy. SCC withdrew funding for late 68 & 70 journeys. Unless the subsidies on the ones they ran for free were reinstated I'd imagine it's cannock to Lichfield or Stafford that get subsidy n poss to Rugeley in evenings / Sundays.  Do they constantly meddle with the network and f##k it up in Yorkshire?  The two Sapphire services Cannock run were completely screwed up & had frequency decreased. Does that happen up there?

[BK63 YWP]

Not much subsidy in Cannock any more. NX won several evening tenders & arriva had a breakdown excuse the pun and ran them for no subsidy. SCC withdrew funding for late 68 & 70 journeys. Unless the subsidies on the ones they ran for free were reinstated I'd imagine it's cannock to Lichfield or Stafford that get subsidy n poss to Rugeley in evenings / Sundays.  Do they constantly meddle with the network and f##k it up in Yorkshire?  The two Sapphire services Cannock run were completely screwed up & had frequency decreased. Does that happen up there?

Not what I know of but they have made 110 Leeds to Wakefield Sapphire, loads of routes becoming MAX and decent fleet

[Cheese]

Not much subsidy in Cannock any more. NX won several evening tenders & arriva had a breakdown excuse the pun and ran them for no subsidy. SCC withdrew funding for late 68 & 70 journeys. Unless the subsidies on the ones they ran for free were reinstated I'd imagine it's cannock to Lichfield or Stafford that get subsidy n poss to Rugeley in evenings / Sundays.  Do they constantly meddle with the network and f##k it up in Yorkshire?  The two Sapphire services Cannock run were completely screwed up & had frequency decreased. Does that happen up there?

No subsidy on Cannock to Lichfield. Or Cannock to Stafford. Or Cannock to Rugeley for that matter.

[Bob]

So all evening journeys & Sundays on those routes are un subsidised? 

[Cheese]

So all evening journeys & Sundays on those routes are un subsidised? 

Yep, and have been for quite a while. Certain Sunday 825s were subsidised (late journeys) but don't know which ones are, if any, now. One early morning Saturday 60 journey was subsidised but think that is also commercial now.

[tyresmoke]

Not what I know of but they have made 110 Leeds to Wakefield Sapphire, loads of routes becoming MAX and decent fleet

I spent two weeks working in Yorkshire for Dewsbury depot - I think its fair to say the majority of their network is a strong commercial operation, I worked on a MAX route (126/127 Dewsbury-Wakefield) and it was far busier than many of our routes in the North East where I normally work! One of my friends worked on the 110 and said he'd never known anything like it, very very busy! There are further routes joining the MAX brand, both in Yorkshire (+ related NE) and elsewhere, Southern Counties are the latest ones to adopt it.
I would like to think it could be made to work in the Midlands operation, but from the outside looking in it would appear the operation is very split, with East Midlands (Derby, Leicester etc) being very sturdy and requiring very few changes, and West Midlands being very unstable and subject to changes every few months.