Arriva's Durham County fleet are very poorly presented, missing branding etc is supposed to be raised with the Marketing team via the "Publicity Champions" of whom are based at every depot, who, erm, clearly don't do what they're supposed to do.
The NSAs for the Sapphire 1/5/5A/12/19 are all set up, and were even loaded into the 13 reg Pulsars, why this never happened for the StreetLites, who knows.
The internal branding, is poor in my opinion, but the Arriva Brand Guidelines heavily restrict what the designers can and can't do, I've even attempted to mock branding up, but it's very hard to make anything look decent...! The internal branding was designed by the national Marketing team, so I kind of expected better to be honest.
Something needs to be done, as there's room for improvements at both Northumbria and Durham County, with the latter with the most issues in regards to fleet presentation at present.
There really is no attention to detail across Arriva North East, and it really lets the company down.
As for GNE - I had 6309 on Tuesday, and it was absolutely disgusting inside, it clearly hadn't been cleaned for days, however that's the only bad experience I've had on the renewed X9/X10.
Ive also definitely been on a Darlington Pulsar recently that had updated Next Stop Announcements. It seemed to work quite well, with a rolling mix of cross marketing between stop screens. Audio was the new female voice used in recent Teesside updates and I think the Northumbria X21/22?
Sounds like the depot haven't bothered to update all of the vehicles if some were not working, which is a shame as the system has many benefits.
Who actually manages the system anyway?
Marketing team do the NSA slides as far as I'm aware, and yes, it's the same voice.
(18 Feb 2018, 7:25 pm)Dan Did you miss this post? I responded to you giving details of this feature just a few weeks ago, when you made a similar post commenting on the lack of updates to the Arriva North East fleet list.
(18 Feb 2018, 7:25 pm)Dan Did you miss this post? I responded to you giving details of this feature just a few weeks ago, when you made a similar post commenting on the lack of updates to the Arriva North East fleet list.
(18 Feb 2018, 9:02 pm)Dan On a slightly different note, and perhaps something which will strike up some discussion, I travelled on a handful of Arriva buses yesterday and I found myself quite disappointed.
(18 Feb 2018, 9:02 pm)Dan On a slightly different note, and perhaps something which will strike up some discussion, I travelled on a handful of Arriva buses yesterday and I found myself quite disappointed.
) of a EcoCity with the old branding in question. Some of the MAX Pulsar's on the 306 have yet to be branded.I have to agree with a fair amount of the things being said above.
Next stop announcements - some mistakes in these and not updated when stops are moved or new stops are added, the Sapphire 7 announcements are the same now as they were when launched in December 2013 and since then, a number of new bus stops have been placed on this route and have not been added and then there's the fact they think Rushyford is near Durham, a stop in Woodham comes up on the screen but there's no audio announcement and even more randomly, the Pulsar's and E400's refer to this same stop in two different ways, no announcements at all on morning runs to Framwellgate Moor. Similar issues on the 5/5A routes at Darlington although it's rare to see anything other than the Arriva logo on those, 1465/66 have never had any announcements since they were fitted. X21 hasn't had announcements for a while, Arriva programmed announcements in for the 21/X21 about a month before the full route became the X21 and sure enough they no longer worked when this change happened.
Plugs - it's at least a year possibly two since I complained to Arriva that none of the 7 allocation has plugs you can actually use, only change in this time is that 1515 randomly having its plugs replaced with USBs. Complaints on a regular basis on their Facebook about this and nothing changes.
Appearence - apart from the fleet numbers on the front, I can easily tell whether a Sapphire 7 Pulsar is a Darlington or Belmont example just by looking at the state of it, saw one of Belmont's examples the other night and a considerable amount of paintwork was missing, bodywork was also scratched and dented to hell, one of them was going round looking like it was repainted by small children using their hands, not helped by missing Sapphire logos. At least Darlington has finally sorted that shoddy looking bodge job panel on the front of 7538 from when it was based at Belmont (still requires a logo though). The very outdated 21/X21 branding just shows how much care and effort gets put in at times, the notices on buses about the X21 changes that came into effect yesterday even showed a photo (one of mine of course ) of a EcoCity with the old branding in question. Some of the MAX Pulsar's on the 306 have yet to be branded.
One thing I complained to Arriva about recently was a lack of heat in any form on the top deck of our Sapphire 7 E400's on every journey I have made since about the end of September, mind I was amazed about a fortnight after completing to get a E400 that wasn't totally baltic like I had been enduring for a few months.
(18 Feb 2018, 11:53 pm)mb134 7416 went a year and a half without branding or internal refurbishment, and still hasn't been branded for anything! 4664 has been running around in MAX base since late 2016, while the amount of buses with incomplete branding is quite ridiculous.
I fully echo your point about the rear destinations being used for numbers only - Ashington had 7522/3/5-8 running around like that for about half a year without caring. Yes, it is a little thing, but when you've got a bus with so many "little things", it doesn't give off an impression to the customer that you care about the bus, or them.
There is no attention to detail. It seems like the management are still firmly stuck in the mindset where all they had to do was get a bus from A to B - while in 2018, a mindset like that won't see you get very far. You can't try and win passengers by promising everything and delivering nothing, as sooner or later they'll just give up.
The X21/X22 timetable looked like it was designed in a nursery, the hideous use of very dark grey, dark blue, purple, Arriva blue and green, along with a logo which doesn't even have "Sapphire" in the correct font... (18 Feb 2018, 11:53 pm)mb134 7416 went a year and a half without branding or internal refurbishment, and still hasn't been branded for anything! 4664 has been running around in MAX base since late 2016, while the amount of buses with incomplete branding is quite ridiculous.
I fully echo your point about the rear destinations being used for numbers only - Ashington had 7522/3/5-8 running around like that for about half a year without caring. Yes, it is a little thing, but when you've got a bus with so many "little things", it doesn't give off an impression to the customer that you care about the bus, or them.
There is no attention to detail. It seems like the management are still firmly stuck in the mindset where all they had to do was get a bus from A to B - while in 2018, a mindset like that won't see you get very far. You can't try and win passengers by promising everything and delivering nothing, as sooner or later they'll just give up.
The X21/X22 timetable looked like it was designed in a nursery, the hideous use of very dark grey, dark blue, purple, Arriva blue and green, along with a logo which doesn't even have "Sapphire" in the correct font...
(18 Feb 2018, 9:02 pm)Dan On a slightly different note, and perhaps something which will strike up some discussion, I travelled on a handful of Arriva buses yesterday and I found myself quite disappointed.During my working life I worked for both Go Ahead and Arriva and found Go Ahead progressive and thorough when introducing new equipment and not geared to using the cheapest alternative. Arriva always seemed to go off half cocked and failed to complete tasks to a satisfactory conclusion with no one prepared to take ownership anyone who dared to make an adverse comment was viewed as a negative and a troublemaker .The X1 team of drivers always had an uphill battle to maintain the standards they aspired to especially as the streetlites were a new entity featuring 2 engine types. During my time as an X1 driver I was outspoken and not liked by supervision
I made my way to Durham on a few Go North East services (56 to Concord, 50 to Framwellgate Moor, then X21 to Durham), deciding to jump off the X21 in Durham rather than continue to Bishop Auckland on the same bus. Instead I thought it'd be a good idea to go to Bishop Auckland by using the X46 to Crook with a connection to the X1 from there, to sample a few buses that I don't often get to travel on.
The first bus that arrived on the X46 was 7418. Internally the bus was quite well-presented - it wasn't the cleanest but my immediate perception wouldn't have been that it was a 13-year old bus. Externally the bus wasn't quite as good: the bus was dirty (somewhat understandable given the nature of the route), and the biggest eyesore for me was the lack of black masking at the bottom of the front destination display, meaning what is ordinarily hidden was all exposed and on show. The right hand side of the black masking was coming away which meant that part of the Wi-Fi symbol and 'W' in Wi-Fi was also missing.
My next bus was 1590. Immediately I noticed what seems to be common on Arriva North East's Streetlites: the chrome Wrightbus grille on the front of the bus was partially missing. A very little thing, and only us enthusiasts would ever notice it, but it seems to be quite common for this to be (partially) missing nowadays. Is there a reason for it? The Next Stop Announcements were so quiet they were barely audible (I have fairly good hearing and struggled to make out some of the announcements), and the power sockets didn't work. I didn't try the Wi-Fi but I was prompted to connect to it - so in terms of new technology on buses, the Wi-Fi probably would have been the only thing ticking the box for me.
In Bishop Auckland Bus Station, I spotted a brand new Streetlite. I wasn't quite sure what service the bus was going to be allocated to but suspected it was going to be a late-running 5A (which turned out to be true). The driver eventually came out of the canteen around 5 minutes after the service was due to depart, eventually leaving around 7 minutes late. The interior of 1604 was similar to what we usually see - the seats still showing the old Sapphire logo/colourscheme, but the cove panels had been given a makeover showing the new corporate light blue colour. These cove panels added quite a bit of colour to the bus which made for a more pleasant experience, but the designs looked amateurish, as if they had been quickly mocked up on Microsoft Paint, and I found the bottoms of the vinyls were peeling already (just a week or so after being put on!) The most disappointing and unprofessional thing to see, was the Next Stop Announcement monitor showing the black default "HANOVER DISPLAYS LTD" screen. Despite having been at Darlington for a fortnight or so before being pressed into service, Arriva clearly hadn't updated the Next Stop Announcement media at all, even just to show their own logo (if the media wasn't ready). Above the TFT monitor, a small section of the black masking was missing, so every time the bell was pressed, a red light was visible below the actual 'Stopping' sign. Again a very little thing, but feels like something that should have been spotted and fixed by Wrightbus while the bus was being prepared for service. Unlike a lot of enthusiasts, I don't think Wrightbus' range of buses are all that bad. They don't scream 'quality' but they're not as bad as they're made out to be, either. I must say that the stop/start technology on the Streetlites is a lot more noticeable and irritating than on the StreetDeck range. It was really starting to irritate me by the end of my journey, and I was glad to get off, but I suspect it's something we'll have to get used to going forward...
When I did get off, I noticed that the rear destination display was still set up to only show a route number on the rear. I'd noticed this last weekend too, but thought it would have been sorted by now (it's a quick fix!)... Clearly not. Something else that makes no difference to a 'normal' customer, but why bother spending the money on the full-size rear display, only to show a route number in the middle of it? Seems bizarre!
I jumped on another bus from Shildon to Newton Aycliffe after this. Didn't get any details other than it being a 61-reg Pulsar. Going back to the basics, I was surprisingly more impressed. The bus was really clean and tidy internally, and the only thing letting it down was a Next Stop Announcement system being fitted, but only showing a generic Arriva logo. I'd heard that the council contributed funding towards the fitting of Next Stop Announcements to Pulsars in Darlington, so quite disappointing to see that the system still doesn't work, after about a year(?) of the system being fitted.
In Newton Aycliffe, I got a lucky shot of an 'old' Sapphire Pulsar on the 7 with a 'new' Sapphire Streetlite on the 5. Was happy with the shot overall and although I still do prefer the older design, it did look quite dated compared to the new livery (which is starting to grow on me now - it looks quite modern and fresh). 1522 was another example of a bus with a missing chrome Wrightbus logo at the front.
My next ride was 4814, from Newton Aycliffe to Darlington. I noticed that the offside was still missing branding (which it has done for years now), and it still made reference to the long-since withdrawn 21 service between Darlington and Peterlee. The seats weren't very comfortable, but on a brighter note, the Next Stop Announcement system (fitted a year or two ago) was now working. There was no audio but the visuals were working spot on - complete with new Arriva logo etc.
Next up was a ride on the X67 to Stockton. A bus arrived on stand but the driver left it, going for his break. Another driver didn't emerge until 15 minutes after the bus was scheduled to depart. The driver started to load the bus with passengers, still showing "Not in Service" on the display, until intending passengers queried: "Are you the 66 or the 67?" The driver, with a rather poor attitude, grunted, "The X67" and didn't take too kindly to an elderly gentleman pointing out that he hadn't put the X67 on the display. At this point, the next X66 had arrived, in the form of 9/10 branded Optare Solo 2868, which would have departed a minute or two after my X67. Again, it may come as a surprise, but the Next Stop Announcements weren't working on the X67... Although this one did seem to be a Hanover issue with a faulty system, rather than Arriva just not bothering to programme anything.
After taking a few photos in Stockton, I had a ride on freshly-painted Centro 1924 next. It was allocated to the 15 service - pretty uncommon to see anything other than a Pulsar on there. The bus was running late, with the next 15 unloading passengers on the High Street immediately behind. But again, going back to the basics, what a well-presented bus! The light blue paintwork stands out really well in Stockton High Street against all of the other buses, and Arriva have done a great job on improving the interior too, with leather seats and a grey moquette used on the seat backs, covering the old grey plastic.
My final bus of the day was 1917. Due to be withdrawn in the imminent future, I was keen to secure one last ride on one of these Cadets. Taking the 'scenic' route to Middlesbrough on the 17A service, I was again impressed by the more basic bus. The interior was very smart (probably the best-presented bus of the day), and aside from the seats being quite uncomfortable with little padding, it was a really nice ride. At least the Wrightbus logo on this one can't fall off!
All in all, it seemed like the modern features on Arriva's buses were letting them down. Other operators, in and out of the region, are just as bad when it comes to maintaining these new technologies, but it really did give a poor perception. Aiming to put any bias aside, I travelled north on the Go North East X9 service. The bus was clean externally and aside from a bit of litter upstairs (despite having bins near the tables... you can lead a horse to water, eh), it was a really pleasant passenger experience. Again the Volvo B5s get a lot of negativity in the enthusiast community, but I'd say that this round of buses on the X9/X10 is the best yet. Wi-Fi worked, Next Stop Announcements worked, the three-pin sockets worked (which did come as a surprise, admittedly), and I had plenty leg-room on my table seat... I'd go as far to suggest that it's probably one of the best experiences you'll get, travelling on a bus in the North East.
(18 Feb 2018, 9:02 pm)Dan On a slightly different note, and perhaps something which will strike up some discussion, I travelled on a handful of Arriva buses yesterday and I found myself quite disappointed.During my working life I worked for both Go Ahead and Arriva and found Go Ahead progressive and thorough when introducing new equipment and not geared to using the cheapest alternative. Arriva always seemed to go off half cocked and failed to complete tasks to a satisfactory conclusion with no one prepared to take ownership anyone who dared to make an adverse comment was viewed as a negative and a troublemaker .The X1 team of drivers always had an uphill battle to maintain the standards they aspired to especially as the streetlites were a new entity featuring 2 engine types. During my time as an X1 driver I was outspoken and not liked by supervision
I made my way to Durham on a few Go North East services (56 to Concord, 50 to Framwellgate Moor, then X21 to Durham), deciding to jump off the X21 in Durham rather than continue to Bishop Auckland on the same bus. Instead I thought it'd be a good idea to go to Bishop Auckland by using the X46 to Crook with a connection to the X1 from there, to sample a few buses that I don't often get to travel on.
The first bus that arrived on the X46 was 7418. Internally the bus was quite well-presented - it wasn't the cleanest but my immediate perception wouldn't have been that it was a 13-year old bus. Externally the bus wasn't quite as good: the bus was dirty (somewhat understandable given the nature of the route), and the biggest eyesore for me was the lack of black masking at the bottom of the front destination display, meaning what is ordinarily hidden was all exposed and on show. The right hand side of the black masking was coming away which meant that part of the Wi-Fi symbol and 'W' in Wi-Fi was also missing.
My next bus was 1590. Immediately I noticed what seems to be common on Arriva North East's Streetlites: the chrome Wrightbus grille on the front of the bus was partially missing. A very little thing, and only us enthusiasts would ever notice it, but it seems to be quite common for this to be (partially) missing nowadays. Is there a reason for it? The Next Stop Announcements were so quiet they were barely audible (I have fairly good hearing and struggled to make out some of the announcements), and the power sockets didn't work. I didn't try the Wi-Fi but I was prompted to connect to it - so in terms of new technology on buses, the Wi-Fi probably would have been the only thing ticking the box for me.
In Bishop Auckland Bus Station, I spotted a brand new Streetlite. I wasn't quite sure what service the bus was going to be allocated to but suspected it was going to be a late-running 5A (which turned out to be true). The driver eventually came out of the canteen around 5 minutes after the service was due to depart, eventually leaving around 7 minutes late. The interior of 1604 was similar to what we usually see - the seats still showing the old Sapphire logo/colourscheme, but the cove panels had been given a makeover showing the new corporate light blue colour. These cove panels added quite a bit of colour to the bus which made for a more pleasant experience, but the designs looked amateurish, as if they had been quickly mocked up on Microsoft Paint, and I found the bottoms of the vinyls were peeling already (just a week or so after being put on!) The most disappointing and unprofessional thing to see, was the Next Stop Announcement monitor showing the black default "HANOVER DISPLAYS LTD" screen. Despite having been at Darlington for a fortnight or so before being pressed into service, Arriva clearly hadn't updated the Next Stop Announcement media at all, even just to show their own logo (if the media wasn't ready). Above the TFT monitor, a small section of the black masking was missing, so every time the bell was pressed, a red light was visible below the actual 'Stopping' sign. Again a very little thing, but feels like something that should have been spotted and fixed by Wrightbus while the bus was being prepared for service. Unlike a lot of enthusiasts, I don't think Wrightbus' range of buses are all that bad. They don't scream 'quality' but they're not as bad as they're made out to be, either. I must say that the stop/start technology on the Streetlites is a lot more noticeable and irritating than on the StreetDeck range. It was really starting to irritate me by the end of my journey, and I was glad to get off, but I suspect it's something we'll have to get used to going forward...
When I did get off, I noticed that the rear destination display was still set up to only show a route number on the rear. I'd noticed this last weekend too, but thought it would have been sorted by now (it's a quick fix!)... Clearly not. Something else that makes no difference to a 'normal' customer, but why bother spending the money on the full-size rear display, only to show a route number in the middle of it? Seems bizarre!
I jumped on another bus from Shildon to Newton Aycliffe after this. Didn't get any details other than it being a 61-reg Pulsar. Going back to the basics, I was surprisingly more impressed. The bus was really clean and tidy internally, and the only thing letting it down was a Next Stop Announcement system being fitted, but only showing a generic Arriva logo. I'd heard that the council contributed funding towards the fitting of Next Stop Announcements to Pulsars in Darlington, so quite disappointing to see that the system still doesn't work, after about a year(?) of the system being fitted.
In Newton Aycliffe, I got a lucky shot of an 'old' Sapphire Pulsar on the 7 with a 'new' Sapphire Streetlite on the 5. Was happy with the shot overall and although I still do prefer the older design, it did look quite dated compared to the new livery (which is starting to grow on me now - it looks quite modern and fresh). 1522 was another example of a bus with a missing chrome Wrightbus logo at the front.
My next ride was 4814, from Newton Aycliffe to Darlington. I noticed that the offside was still missing branding (which it has done for years now), and it still made reference to the long-since withdrawn 21 service between Darlington and Peterlee. The seats weren't very comfortable, but on a brighter note, the Next Stop Announcement system (fitted a year or two ago) was now working. There was no audio but the visuals were working spot on - complete with new Arriva logo etc.
Next up was a ride on the X67 to Stockton. A bus arrived on stand but the driver left it, going for his break. Another driver didn't emerge until 15 minutes after the bus was scheduled to depart. The driver started to load the bus with passengers, still showing "Not in Service" on the display, until intending passengers queried: "Are you the 66 or the 67?" The driver, with a rather poor attitude, grunted, "The X67" and didn't take too kindly to an elderly gentleman pointing out that he hadn't put the X67 on the display. At this point, the next X66 had arrived, in the form of 9/10 branded Optare Solo 2868, which would have departed a minute or two after my X67. Again, it may come as a surprise, but the Next Stop Announcements weren't working on the X67... Although this one did seem to be a Hanover issue with a faulty system, rather than Arriva just not bothering to programme anything.
After taking a few photos in Stockton, I had a ride on freshly-painted Centro 1924 next. It was allocated to the 15 service - pretty uncommon to see anything other than a Pulsar on there. The bus was running late, with the next 15 unloading passengers on the High Street immediately behind. But again, going back to the basics, what a well-presented bus! The light blue paintwork stands out really well in Stockton High Street against all of the other buses, and Arriva have done a great job on improving the interior too, with leather seats and a grey moquette used on the seat backs, covering the old grey plastic.
My final bus of the day was 1917. Due to be withdrawn in the imminent future, I was keen to secure one last ride on one of these Cadets. Taking the 'scenic' route to Middlesbrough on the 17A service, I was again impressed by the more basic bus. The interior was very smart (probably the best-presented bus of the day), and aside from the seats being quite uncomfortable with little padding, it was a really nice ride. At least the Wrightbus logo on this one can't fall off!
All in all, it seemed like the modern features on Arriva's buses were letting them down. Other operators, in and out of the region, are just as bad when it comes to maintaining these new technologies, but it really did give a poor perception. Aiming to put any bias aside, I travelled north on the Go North East X9 service. The bus was clean externally and aside from a bit of litter upstairs (despite having bins near the tables... you can lead a horse to water, eh), it was a really pleasant passenger experience. Again the Volvo B5s get a lot of negativity in the enthusiast community, but I'd say that this round of buses on the X9/X10 is the best yet. Wi-Fi worked, Next Stop Announcements worked, the three-pin sockets worked (which did come as a surprise, admittedly), and I had plenty leg-room on my table seat... I'd go as far to suggest that it's probably one of the best experiences you'll get, travelling on a bus in the North East.
I think one of the main things behind all of this is that Arriva are never really ahead of the curve. Sapphire, for example, was always just a poor imitation of Stagecoach's "Gold". WiFi and on-board power only started to appear, iirc, after Go North East had offered it on some of their premium services.
I think the one thing that strikes me most often is that, every summer, the X18 has the potential to be a immensely popular route. It is popular and very well used, don't get me wrong, however every year they run *very* late, all day, every day. While 7529-33 are very pleasant vehicles, that's one less than the summer PVR, and the summer spares the past two years have been in the form of 4664 and 7416... The route still has no NSAs, and for a potential 4 hour journey, no power is quite surprising.
The X15 is another example. While I still believe 7511-3 are capable of the route when working, the amount they seem to be VOR now is not acceptable for the route. Their sister vehicles have just been taken off a far less demanding pair of routes, and while those 3 were in a better condition to begin with, 4 years of solid flogging up and down the A1 hasn't done them any good. New vehicles are badly needed, and they don't seem to be forthcoming. On that note, I contacted Arriva last summer complaining about the service, and asked why the service didn't have newer vehicles when reliability was so poor. Their response was that they were moving more powerful vehicles to the service from October... did they break down before they even got there?
I can safely say that I am glad not to be wholly reliant on arriva, any more. NSAs never worked on the pulsars allocated to the 24 (and now the 22) and very few of the vehicles on the 6 have working displays.
And the thing of drivers disappearing when they're due to depart is an annoying one. Used to particularly bug me when the 8:15 6rocked up at ten past then the driver disappeared for 10 minutes, ending up hitting all the hoards of students wanting to travel half a mile, as a result. I know a lot of these co Durham routes are a 3 hour plus round trip, so it's essential to start with an empty bladder but it's always the same few drivers who stretch their comfort breaks out longer than they should.
My relief at has genuine choice of operator for my most frequent journeys is somewhat tempered by the fact that the rather rude driver who used to often work the 22 now appears on the 64 almost every time I use it with the boys. Arriva's 70p local child single fares beat the flat £1 hands down, though! Shame I usually have to start the exchange with "yes, he's still 14."
Arriva always has and always will do the absolute minimum in terms of bus maintenance and repair. Generally if something breaks or does not work but is not a legal requirement, it will not be fixed.
A classic example is the windscreen wipers, which usually have three settings, intermittent, normal and fast. In half the buses at my depot the intermittent setting will not be working and will never be fixed no matter how often they are reported. Like all companies its all about £££ at the end of the day, but Arriva take it to the extreme.
(19 Feb 2018, 3:30 pm)Driver9*** Arriva always has and always will do the absolute minimum in terms of bus maintenance and repair. Generally if something breaks or does not work but is not a legal requirement, it will not be fixed.
A classic example is the windscreen wipers, which usually have three settings, intermittent, normal and fast. In half the buses at my depot the intermittent setting will not be working and will never be fixed no matter how often they are reported. Like all companies its all about £££ at the end of the day, but Arriva take it to the extreme.
(19 Feb 2018, 3:30 pm)Driver9*** Arriva always has and always will do the absolute minimum in terms of bus maintenance and repair. Generally if something breaks or does not work but is not a legal requirement, it will not be fixed.
A classic example is the windscreen wipers, which usually have three settings, intermittent, normal and fast. In half the buses at my depot the intermittent setting will not be working and will never be fixed no matter how often they are reported. Like all companies its all about £££ at the end of the day, but Arriva take it to the extreme.
(19 Feb 2018, 4:55 am)omnicity4659 The news/publicity articles the NE marketing team publish make absolutely no sense whatsoever, whether that be through sentences just being thrown together, spelling errors and just contradictory/wrong information...
(19 Feb 2018, 4:55 am)omnicity4659 The news/publicity articles the NE marketing team publish make absolutely no sense whatsoever, whether that be through sentences just being thrown together, spelling errors and just contradictory/wrong information...
By the looks of things Sapphire streetlite 1611 and 1612 are both going to be branded as sapphire spares, unless they haven’t had the 1/5/5A Branded but added but have had all the rest of the vinyls added
(19 Feb 2018, 7:13 pm)L469 YVK Experienced this the most when complaining about the withdrawal of the late evening (after 11.30pm) X10 and 308 runs to Blyth.
When I complained about the X10 and suggested that they ran it as a 43E (serving full 43 route to Cramlington and then the X10 route from there to Blyth), I was met with the following bull***t:
"Our data shows that most people using the 23:40 X10 either travelled on the 43 at 23:05 or the X11 at 23:10"
Now, why the hell (unless people wanted stops that the X10/X11 didn't call at) would somebody use the 43 all the way from Newcastle to Cramlington when they could wait another 5 minutes for the 'express'?
And when it came to expressing my disgust at withdrawing the 23:40 308 (which would've still been viable to run on a Friday & Saturday), I was simply met with the response of most people only using it between Newcastle and Billy Mill rather than them admitting the true reason (to close Blyth Depot earlier).
Ahem, what about people with day, weekly and monthly tickets (both Arriva and Nexus) as well as any concessionary fares? The people (particularly the former) who probably pay to sit in endless traffic with packed buses running late. And yes they seem to be correcting that come the 18th March but they're probably only adding the extra bus and running time to keep the Traffic Commissioner of their backs and avoid fines for non compliance.
(19 Feb 2018, 7:13 pm)L469 YVK Experienced this the most when complaining about the withdrawal of the late evening (after 11.30pm) X10 and 308 runs to Blyth.
When I complained about the X10 and suggested that they ran it as a 43E (serving full 43 route to Cramlington and then the X10 route from there to Blyth), I was met with the following bull***t:
"Our data shows that most people using the 23:40 X10 either travelled on the 43 at 23:05 or the X11 at 23:10"
Now, why the hell (unless people wanted stops that the X10/X11 didn't call at) would somebody use the 43 all the way from Newcastle to Cramlington when they could wait another 5 minutes for the 'express'?
And when it came to expressing my disgust at withdrawing the 23:40 308 (which would've still been viable to run on a Friday & Saturday), I was simply met with the response of most people only using it between Newcastle and Billy Mill rather than them admitting the true reason (to close Blyth Depot earlier).
Ahem, what about people with day, weekly and monthly tickets (both Arriva and Nexus) as well as any concessionary fares? The people (particularly the former) who probably pay to sit in endless traffic with packed buses running late. And yes they seem to be correcting that come the 18th March but they're probably only adding the extra bus and running time to keep the Traffic Commissioner of their backs and avoid fines for non compliance.
(20 Feb 2018, 4:06 pm)Driver9*** The days of Arriva running late buses for a dozen or so punters are long gone. For years they ran a lot of local mini bus services through housing estates whilst the big buses who passed by these estates on the main road ran empty. It took them a long time to catch on (about the time DB took them over) but they realised why run an extra bus and driver just to save lazy people a minute or two walk to catch the empty big buses running past the estates....
(20 Feb 2018, 4:06 pm)Driver9*** The days of Arriva running late buses for a dozen or so punters are long gone. For years they ran a lot of local mini bus services through housing estates whilst the big buses who passed by these estates on the main road ran empty. It took them a long time to catch on (about the time DB took them over) but they realised why run an extra bus and driver just to save lazy people a minute or two walk to catch the empty big buses running past the estates....
The latest cadet has fallen... 1920 is being towed into Stockton as I type this. By the way the engineers are talking it's going straight into the naughty corner and not coming back. Such a shame, first bus I ever drove in service on both on my own and with my mentor.
(21 Feb 2018, 9:12 am)Multi21 The latest cadet has fallen... 1920 is being towed into Stockton as I type this. By the way the engineers are talking it's going straight into the naughty corner and not coming back. Such a shame, first bus I ever drove in service on both on my own and with my mentor.
(20 Feb 2018, 4:06 pm)Driver9*** The days of Arriva running late buses for a dozen or so punters are long gone. For years they ran a lot of local mini bus services through housing estates whilst the big buses who passed by these estates on the main road ran empty. It took them a long time to catch on (about the time DB took them over) but they realised why run an extra bus and driver just to save lazy people a minute or two walk to catch the empty big buses running past the estates....
(21 Feb 2018, 9:12 am)Multi21 The latest cadet has fallen... 1920 is being towed into Stockton as I type this. By the way the engineers are talking it's going straight into the naughty corner and not coming back. Such a shame, first bus I ever drove in service on both on my own and with my mentor.
(20 Feb 2018, 4:06 pm)Driver9*** The days of Arriva running late buses for a dozen or so punters are long gone. For years they ran a lot of local mini bus services through housing estates whilst the big buses who passed by these estates on the main road ran empty. It took them a long time to catch on (about the time DB took them over) but they realised why run an extra bus and driver just to save lazy people a minute or two walk to catch the empty big buses running past the estates....
