(13 Sep 2013, 5:46 pm)Andreos1 wrote What colour is a red Northern bus?
Cos I'm pretty certain you would argue it was blue.

(13 Sep 2013, 5:46 pm)Andreos1 wrote Right... One last time, it might sink in: To force (verb) to cause a person or thing to follow a prescribed or dictated course.

Q: What is the lack of a bus doing to the people in the Tyne Valley?

Is it:
A ) Causing that person to follow a prescribed course and seek alternative forms of transport (see definition of force taken from a dictionary)
to get to their destination?

(13 Sep 2013, 6:07 pm)Andreos1 wrote If I didn't know better, I could have sworn he wrote in the style and manner of a well known GNE facebook page...

(13 Sep 2013, 9:53 pm)eezypeazy wrote As enthusiasts (and I guess I've been one for longer than most people on here), shouldn't we be spending our time encouraging others to use buses, rather than getting our knickers in a knot when the wrong colour bus turns up? The more people use buses, the greater the demand, the more buses there will be and the more interesting and varied this hobby of ours becomes. But if all we do is perpetuate negatives, well, we're just talking the industry down and doing it - and ourselves - no favours at all.

(13 Sep 2013, 9:53 pm)eezypeazy wrote A Red Northern Bus is a Red Northern Bus... although some people would spend many hours discussing shades/pantone references/etc


Precisely... a lack of a bus is NOT causing that person to follow a prescribed course... this is the bit you don't understand. The lack of a bus (anywhere - even in Fencehouses) causes a constraint of options; it does not prescribe or dictate what happens next. It cause them to seek alternatives (as we both agree, I think), but that's just life...

This is more important than this debate... it's a fundamental discussion of what's happening, today, in many rural communities (and others not so rural). For example, you can trace it back to the Durham County Council 'Category D' classification in the 50s/60s. DCC wanted villages that had been built around collieries to die; some did, some survived as dormitories. DCC's argument that was the cost of providing schools/shops/doctors and, yes, transport to these places was excessive, given that there real purpose (ie., coal mining) had gone.

If you've always lived in a remote, isolated community, you've never had the benefit of public transport; you've never had it, so it's never been taken away from you. So why should the lack of public transport be translated into you being "forced" (your word) to use an alternative, where public transport has never existed? And why should the need to provide public transport become a responsibility on either a bus company or a local authority? (Whole new debate opens up - hopefully...).

Believe me, I'm not trying to have a debate about words here; I'm trying to stimulate debate about the benefits, and limitations, of public transport, and buses in particular. But I do get upset when people describe a bus service that's carrying no-one as a "life line" (how often do you read that in a newspaper?); and that's why I object to words like "forced" being used inappropriately.

As enthusiasts (and I guess I've been one for longer than most people on here), shouldn't we be spending our time encouraging others to use buses, rather than getting our knickers in a knot when the wrong colour bus turns up? The more people use buses, the greater the demand, the more buses there will be and the more interesting and varied this hobby of ours becomes. But if all we do is perpetuate negatives, well, we're just talking the industry down and doing it - and ourselves - no favours at all.


Oh, I wish... then I might be earning a helluva lot more than I do now...!!!

I'd love to see one of the big three operators set up a customer based focus group/consultation panel. There's a real opportunity here, and one for these companies to really interact with their passengers. All for the sake of a couple of hours a month. Heck, I'd even donate my own time and experience to chair such a thing if any of them were willing to give it a shot.

(14 Sep 2013, 9:12 am)Greg in Weardale wrote Red 5229 is on 0944 Allenheads to Hexham service 688 and Wi-Fi works (slowly) even at Allenheads. Currently at Dirt Pot (altho road signs for this wonderfully named hamlet seem to have disappeared)

(14 Sep 2013, 9:56 am)Michael wrote Post on FB says.. theirs being a crash between a bike and bus in front of stadium of light

(13 Sep 2013, 7:24 pm)Andreos1 wrote 4 play?

If it is the 4 (like BJ10 VUS, I'm sceptical), how many key points does it serve?
- Houghton
- Galleries
- Concord
- Heworth

Nah, not even GNE are that daft - surely?

(14 Sep 2013, 11:46 am)gtomlinson wrote 4 Play?

You really think they are daft enough to call a bus foreplay?

Haway Five 0 man!

(14 Sep 2013, 2:54 pm)Liam wrote The only way to advertise fare increases...

(14 Sep 2013, 2:20 pm)Daniel wrote 4907 didn't last long in service... Don't say I didn't warn you all!
Is now VOR again, alongside Hybrid 640.

(14 Sep 2013, 6:37 pm)CatsFast101 wrote What bus/service was involved in the incident beside the stadium of light? And it's about time Go North East sorted out the links they post. http://www.simplygo.com/view-all-timetables/?timetable_keywords=durham&timetable_keywordsTo= advertising what bus services serve 'Durham' and as everyone knows the X9/5/X30/38/X7 serve Durham too, well they do now!

And 544 has always sounded very unhealthy, often on the 238's and it sounds terrible I actually couldn't hear my friend who was sitting next to me! Very loud and tired.

(14 Sep 2013, 6:52 pm)citaro5284 wrote Durham Drive for the 5 in Fellgate, and East Durham on the 38/238 timetable.