Jeff’s Bus Lane Awards 2009

Well, it’s that time of the year yet again (no, I don’t know where 2009 went, either), so again I have put together some awards to review the happenings of the last year. You may not agree with all these, but they are purely my opinions and are presented for your enjoyment and entertainment.

Best Performing Large Company

It’s quite hard to call this year, in some ways, as all three of the big boys have made significant improvements, but I’m going for Go North East. The pace of change has slowed to something less scary, a very sensible purchase of some ex London Volvo B7TLs has been made and they’ve shown that they can make a success out of a new idea with their amazingly successful X9 service. Back in April we could only hope that the then new X9 would be sufficiently well used to be sustainable, given it was a completely new service, so to see it needing to be converted to double deck by December is really impressive. The decision to do a deal to sell Ashington to Arriva is also highly sensible – if it gets approved!

Best Performing Small Company

This year I’m going for The Eden. Their fleet is well presented in the traditional Eden style and they’re a genuinely nice bunch of people who do a professional job.

Most Improved Company

Again, I think this has to go to Arriva North East. Things are not perfect (one word – Redcar!) but have been very much moving in the right direction, with investment in new vehicles and a general feeling that they seem to be focussed on the right end product. It will be interesting to see how, in 2010, the investment in new vehicles for Redcar and the closure of three depots (plus the Hexham/ Ashington deal) changes things – hopefully the end result will be right.

Most Under-whelming Company

This really must go to A1 Coaches. Quite how running a 15 year old, welfare spec Iveco Daily with a powerless power door in public service in 2009 can ever be justified, I do not know.

The Most Impressive New Purchase by a North East Company

This year I think it’s the new VDL DB300 / Wright that have just entered service with Arriva. These are well built, comfortable and capable of performing well.

The Most Impressive Second Hand Purchase by a North East Company

I think this award probably belongs to the Volvo B7TL / East Lancs brought up from London by Go North East for the Angel 21/22. Following a very thorough refurbishment, they really do look the part on these services and their East Lancs bodies are both stylish and solid. It’s also interesting to have mainstream dual door operation back in the region.

The Most Missed Withdrawal of the Year

For me it is probably the Scania N113 / East Lancs Cityzens that Arriva have retired. These stylish and commodious machines have been worked hard on the Blyth expresses all of their lives but were still a pleasure to travel on. Fortunately, they do have worthy replacements (see above!).

The Least Missed Withdrawal of the Year

Stagecoach have heavily pruned their Dennis Dart fleet and this can only be a good thing.