A NORTH EAST bus firm has been forced to rely on a rival operator to run some of its services because of drivers off sick, The Northern Echo understands.
A number of Arriva services in County Durham and Darlington are now being temporarily operated by Go North East due to what the firm has said are "operational issues."
The services, which remain controlled by Arriva North East but are run using Go North East buses and drivers, officially started on Monday this week.
Read more: Covid cases surge as County Durham and Darlington record almost 1,700 cases in week
It is understood that the firm has faced a shortage of staff due to high levels of driver absence as a result of Covid, although Arriva has said there are several factors.
One worker said Go North East had been drafted in to run services from its Chester-le-Street depot on behalf of Arriva due to the firm suffering from "driver sickness."
Meanwhile, Arriva's official social media channels were last week updated to warn that services faced some disruption due to "high levels of driver absence."
A spokesperson for Arriva North East last night confirmed it had called on fellow operators in the region for assistance due to the absences this week.
The spokesperson said that absences had been caused by staff self-isolating, staff sickness and general turnover.
They said: "We’re committed to delivering services for our customers and trying to overcome operational issues as much as possible to do this, and, on this occasion, we’ve called upon our fellow bus operators for assistance.
"Our commitment is to our customers and the running of our network throughout the region.
"We have had continuous Covid measures in place to ensure the health and safety of both our drivers and customers."
Services including the 6 between Durham and West Auckland/Cockfield and the 7 between Durham, Newton Aycliffe and Darlington will be partly run by Go North East.
Read more: Arriva cancels Darlington bus services after more drivers test positive for Covid-19
It comes as Arriva last year had been forced to cancel dozens of bus services from its Darlington Faverdale depot after a number of drivers tested positive for the virus.
At the time, at least 60 services affecting Darlington were unable to run with town centre services seeing "gaps" in the frequency as a result.
That followed off the back of a number of allegations made against Arriva with drivers claiming that social distancing measures were being flouted and buses not being cleaned.
At the time, Arriva North East admitted that services had been impacted due to the positive tests, while it said a "small number" of services had been left unable to run.
Meanwhile it said that it continued to operate under "strict Covid-19 guidelines" to ensure the safety of its staff.
They said it had introduced increased cleaning regimes, including on all touch points on its buses, while staff are "closely adhering" to the NHS Test & Trace process.
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