Arriva Bus Journey tomorrow afternoon

At 2.30 I will be at the Hexham bus station hoping the bus to Haltwhistle turns up on time as I have a surgery in Haltwhistle later that afternoon. This is all part of our efforts to get the local bus company Arriva to improve their service. I met with company reps after repeated complaints and I am pleased that we have a newer fleet and, I am hoping, a better attitude. However, I promised to ride this problem bus myself, so first day back in Northumberland now the House has risen I shall be on the Arriva bus seeing how prompt and improved it really is!

A Big Bus Victory!

Great news: http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/new-arriva-buses-route-newcastle-5069789 as Arriva have taken a series of steps to address the failings of the 685 bus from Newcastle to Carlisle. My thanks to everyone who has written in and their patience whilst we wrote, campaigned, met with Arriva and raised the locals plight in the House of Commons on the 27th June.
The good news is that we are getting
- new buses
- greater reliability and service
- a change in the approach of the bus company who have admitted their fault and are giving some help to those who they let down
- regular assessments of how they are doing
And yours truly taking a random number of bus rides on the 685 over the summer to check it out. I will keep you posted on my report.

Raising Arriva's failure to provide good bus services in parliament

Yesterday was the monthly transport questions in the House of Commons and I got the chance to press the Minister to try and help improve the woeful 685 run by Arriva. Norman Baker , who is on eof hte best of the Liberal Ministers replied. We are going to set up a meeting with the Minister and Arriva; several North East Labour MPs, including Phil Wilson, MP for Sedgefield, are also very concerned at Aarriva's performance and came up to me afterwards and expressed similar concerns.

Guy Opperman (Hexham, Conservative)

The quality of bus travel between Newcastle, Hexham and Carlisle has suffered terribly due to the mismanagement of Arriva. Specifically, many of my constituents encounter great problems with the service being perpetually late or even buses running out of fuel. Will the Minister reassure my constituents that the next time he meets Arriva, he will urge it to improve the quality of this service?
Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 27 June 2013, c445)

Norman Baker (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Regional and Local Transport), Transport; Lewes, Liberal Democrat)I am always keen to improve the quality of bus services for passengers. The satisfaction level of bus travel as measured by the independent Passenger Focus is 84%, and in Tyne and Wear, for example, it is 87%. If the hon. Gentleman is concerned about particular issues in his local area, I would be happy to pursue them with him and the relevant bus company.

The full debate on transport questions can be found here:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2013-06-27a.444.2&s=speaker%3A24962#g445.5