I've said millions of times before, Arriva don't care about Wales. You only have to look at the cuts to services and how little they care about posting diversions and route change updates etc. The day they sell up, I think I will plan a party. The down side is that buses in Wales don't make much money and Arriva won't sell up cheaply so it would take too long for anyone to get their investment back. There are also too few people with the money to do such a thing as Wales, especially North Wales is full of smalish independants who, if it wasn't for tenders, they wouldn't have any work.
Luton is where customer service for ALL Arriva Bus areas (Not sure on London) is controlled. Social media is also based there.
There is certainly strong evidence that Arriva don't care about Wales. It is very difficult to work out what is going on there and what is happening is not all designed to please the passenger! I have looked at various sources to try and piece things together. Both Gwynedd and Denbighshire council websites have been kept up to date and Anglesey's now shows September changes.
Some good news from Rhyl - the 12 to Llandudno is back to the full 15 minute service. The 51/X51 to Denbigh is half hourly (was every 20 minutes) and it is running through to Wrexham every hour, clearly all using deckers. But the 11 to Chester is only hourly, as against the normal half hourly. Local routes in and around Rhyl look fairly back to normal, as is the 40-minutely 13 from Prestatyn to Llandudno.
Arriva's website remains utterly hopeless and the format is just diabolical. They frankly do not deserve to be in business for the state of this site. Under Help there is a Coronavirus timetable information page which does give some broad guidance on frequencies. In the Rhyl area these all seem to agree. And looking at the map on Bustimes backs up all this information. (Bustimes actual timetables are well out of date for all the routes I am talking about in this post, so is Traveline Wales).
Moving west to Gwynedd we get some real oddities. Starting with the 5/5C/5D. The Arriva website's coronavirus information page describes this as every 20 minutes. And glancing at the Gwynedd website's timetable would confirm this, with the 5C from Bangor to Caernarfon and the 5/5D to Llandudno, two 5s and one 5D per hour. Until you look closely. With a round trip of 3 hours 40 minutes a bus every 20 minutes would have 11 boards. But actually two are missing. There are gaps, from Caernarfon there are no buses at 8.10, 9.30, 11.50, 13.10, 15.30, 16.50, which is utterly bizarre. Looking on Bustimes showing the positions of actual vehicles would confirm this is what is being run on the ground. Why would they do this? So the hourly 5D has random 2 hourly gaps, it is totally senseless.
Arriva seem to have given up running the 3 between Porthmadog and Pwllheli, but are running one bus on the 3B section between Pwllheli and Blaenau Ffestiniog at a rather random frequency of up to every 70 minutes but with gaps. No attempt to connect with the Caelloi service on the western part. It would seem the outstation at Pwllheli has closed as a different bus comes down from Bangor each day.
On Anglesey the 4H/4R/X4 as it seems to be now to Holyhead is back to hourly, the previous service having been half hourly, this is consistent between all sources (but Arriva's own website has only just changed). So to the 62 to Amlwch. The Arriva coronovirus help page describes this as every 45 minutes. The Anglesey website now gives us a timetable showing this. Arriva's own website though still shows it as two hourly, with a complete mess as some journeys are the same as Sundays, some are not (even if they are). And for some reason Bustimes simply does not show any vehicles on the 62 at all - the map for northern Anglesey shows no buses. I can't tell whether the 45 minute frequency is actually running, but it would seem rather odd to be doing this.
Conwy council do not give anything much helpful, they just lead us to the Arriva website. Looking at one more pair of routes, the 14/15 from Conwy to Colwyn Bay, the Arriva website is the only source. The coronavirus help page describes this as irregular. Looking closely at the Arriva website timetable, by combining the two routes shown separately of course, shows a roughly half hourly service - with a 2hr 30min round trip time you would expect 5 boards - but one is missing. So there are four buses at 30 minute intervals then a 60 minute gap, throughout the day. Again Bustimes vehicles on the ground appears to back this up.
If you wanted to attract passengers then you would run services on a sensible frequency, not with these gaps. And you would let people know when they were running. I have lost words to describe how bad Arriva's own website is. And its not just the timetable format, the latest news gives some details of Yorkshire's service changes at the end of August - but absolutely nothing for any other region. Arriva clearly don't care.
