"Man, i've been waiting here in the freezing cold for an hour and a half".
"Not my problem."
I sat freezing cold in a rural village, somewhere in the North East of England, waiting for a bus for an hour and a half. Others had waited all afternoon for a service towards our nearest city. It was now pitch black, other than a few street lights.
Frustrated with waiting, I abandoned my plan of going out and waited for the bus in the other direction. You guessed it, it didn’t turn up either.
I, and many others live in rural locations that are served by part taxpayer-funded, part profit making contracted routes, delivered by Arriva.
My route does not have paths, runs on national speed limit roads and, at night, large swathes of it are pitch black. If Arriva don’t turn up, we are stranded. It often feels like the only reliable frequency with our Arriva buses is their frequency in not turning up.
Service appears, although we can’t yet prove this, at its’ most unreliable outside of rush hour when the services are likely (but not yet proven) to be least profitable for Arriva.
When buses don’t turn up excuses range from there being a shortage of Bus Drivers to adverse weather conditions.
The pattern of unreliable services that regularly don’t turn up or are frequently late is causing concern to many of their customers across multiple regions where Arriva operates.
Put simply, if Arriva are not prepared to provide a reliable and consistent service and deliver on the contract that they have been awarded, Arriva should either not be bidding for the contracts or should be stripped of them.
As for me, instead of a Saturday night out, I built this website so that you and I, as taxpayers, can hold Arriva to account and hopefully we can either secure improvement from Arriva in reducing their #dontarrivas or, alternatively, replacement operators for our bus routes.
I sat freezing cold in a rural village, somewhere in the North East of England, waiting for a bus for an hour and a half. Others had waited all afternoon for a service towards our nearest city. It was now pitch black, other than a few street lights.
Frustrated with waiting, I abandoned my plan of going out and waited for the bus in the other direction. You guessed it, it didn’t turn up either.
I, and many others live in rural locations that are served by part taxpayer-funded, part profit making contracted routes, delivered by Arriva.
My route does not have paths, runs on national speed limit roads and, at night, large swathes of it are pitch black. If Arriva don’t turn up, we are stranded. It often feels like the only reliable frequency with our Arriva buses is their frequency in not turning up.
Service appears, although we can’t yet prove this, at its’ most unreliable outside of rush hour when the services are likely (but not yet proven) to be least profitable for Arriva.
When buses don’t turn up excuses range from there being a shortage of Bus Drivers to adverse weather conditions.
The pattern of unreliable services that regularly don’t turn up or are frequently late is causing concern to many of their customers across multiple regions where Arriva operates.
Put simply, if Arriva are not prepared to provide a reliable and consistent service and deliver on the contract that they have been awarded, Arriva should either not be bidding for the contracts or should be stripped of them.
As for me, instead of a Saturday night out, I built this website so that you and I, as taxpayers, can hold Arriva to account and hopefully we can either secure improvement from Arriva in reducing their #dontarrivas or, alternatively, replacement operators for our bus routes.
Call to Action (or Bus Arms!)
Please report Arriva buses that don't turn up to us using our report form. We'll then collate the data, publish it and this will hold Arriva accountable.
Your reports will put pressure on commissioning bodies to force improvements at Arriva Bus, or, rescind Arriva contracts.
Please also share your videos and photos with us on social media!
The more founded formal complaints that we make, the more Arriva's complaints department will be kept busy. Surely it would be cheaper to hire more Bus Drivers or buy all weather tyres?
Why not send copies to your MPs, Local Councillors and Bus Users UK too?
We've made the process easy with a handy range of templates.
Please collate data using our handy FoI Templates on your routes that #dontarriva including how much Arriva are paid to run the contract.
Let's show where your hard earned tax-payer cash is not resulting in the reliable performance of bus routes.
Why not contact your local and our national newspapers, radio stations (BBC, community and commercial) and regional BBC and ITN Newsrooms with your #dontarrivas.
The more stories that they get, the more likely they will be to cover.
If you are interested in clubbing together to make a concerted effort to boycott your #dontarriva route, please get in touch with us using our boycott form and we'll publish your arrangements along with how much Arriva Bus are likely to financially lose as the result of your efforts.
You could use alternative forms of public transport, cycle, drive (including Car Clubs), walk or arrange car shares.
If you have some time to spare, we would welcome those happy to help us with data entry, replying to those who contact us and with IT, Financial, Legal and Public Relations affairs.
We'll then publish them, contrasted against the advertised frequency.
You can print off, edit and print our template petitions and distribute them to Post Offices, local shops, community centres and anywhere else that will give permission and keep them safe.
Please then collect and send them on to your local MPs, Councillors and don't forget to drop us a copy (we will keep personal details private).
If you would like to donate to #don'tarriva, please contact us for further information.