North East Buses

(21 Apr 2014, 11:38 am)buznut wrote [ -> ]With all the recent talk on the X93....What's the lastest update?
Are the B7s working this now or are they still on the 81s....Does anybody know the lastest easter allocations?

There was a mixture of 74xx and 75xx on over Easter. Apparently 7488 broke down at the Flask Inn the other night and a replacement had to be sent from Redcar!

(21 Apr 2014, 11:52 am)Roland Pratt wrote [ -> ]There was a mixture of 74xx and 75xx on over Easter. Apparently 7488 broke down at the Flask Inn the other night and a replacement had to be sent from Redcar!

At least 4 Volvo B7s are in service, with 2E400s also available for use to ensure 6 deckers are useable. Redcar will send a replacement as they have the resources to do so, Whitby being an outstation don't have staff on hand at all times of the day, same as Alnwick and Bishop because the cost of doing so is prohibitive. Same happens at GNE with their outstations.

Frankly that is just a joke! People do not choose to travel with Arriva to have to spend half their day waiting at the roadside while replacement vehicles are sourced from miles away. This though is Arriva's answer to everything they do, it's all about money not the customer.

(21 Apr 2014, 12:52 pm)tyresmoke wrote [ -> ]At least 4 Volvo B7s are in service, with 2E400s also available for use to ensure 6 deckers are useable. Redcar will send a replacement as they have the resources to do so, Whitby being an outstation don't have staff on hand at all times of the day, same as Alnwick and Bishop because the cost of doing so is prohibitive. Same happens at GNE with their outstations.

It appears as a proper depot on the allocation, unlike Alnwick and Bishop!

A while ago I was leaving Haltwhistle to travel to Corbridge and got a lift as far as Haydon Bridge.
Before Haydon Bridge we passed the Arriva 685 broken down in a layby.

No bus had arrived an hour later (it had crashed in Carlisle).

Eventually nearly two hours late the replacement for the broken-down 685 arrived, having been sent out from Carlisle to pick up the stranded passengers and convey them onwards.

Whereas previously Arriva would have 'serviced' from Hexham it now has to be Carlisle or Jesmond.

(21 Apr 2014, 2:44 pm)G-CPTN wrote [ -> ]A while ago I was leaving Haltwhistle to travel to Corbridge and got a lift as far as Haydon Bridge.
Before Haydon Bridge we passed the Arriva 685 broken down in a layby.

No bus had arrived an hour later (it had crashed in Carlisle).

Eventually nearly two hours late the replacement for the broken-down 685 arrived, having been sent out from Carlisle to pick up the stranded passengers and convey them onwards.

Whereas previously Arriva would have 'serviced' from Hexham it now has to be Carlisle or Jesmond.

I was waiting for the bus to school one morning a few years ago (when they went via Gilsland and were coach-operated) to hear a neighbour shout to me that the bus had its hazards on just up the road.

I did have to wait for the next one, and I seem to remember that it was Hexham-operated at the time. Only took around half an hour for the next one to come and replace it; but it would have been approximately one hour later should it have been Jesmond-run.

Stagecoach in Carlisle have, in the past, fixed knackered Arriva 685s (coaches, although they would probably do Omnicities now) with no real knowledge on them. They only do so because of the two companies sharing the operation of the 685s.

Doesn't really happen the other way round, say if a Stagecoach bus broke down in Newcastle, it would just go to Walkergate.

If a Blyth or Ashington operated service broke down near Newcastle such as the Regent Centre, would Jesmond be able to find a vehicle and driver to pick the run up from the Newcastle end to keep the outbound journey towards the Northumberland area to time?

(21 Apr 2014, 3:54 pm)Davey Bowyer wrote [ -> ]If a Blyth or Ashington operated service broke down near Newcastle such as the Regent Centre, would Jesmond be able to find a vehicle and driver to pick the run up from the Newcastle end to keep the outbound journey towards the Northumberland area to time?

Would it not be easier for the driver to get on a bus going back to the home depot to pick a bus up there and continue the service from the relevant bus station, as most services between Blyth or Ashington and Newcastle run at least every 20 minutes anyway?

It would be but what about the peak time though?

(21 Apr 2014, 2:12 pm)robisdave wrote [ -> ]Frankly that is just a joke! People do not choose to travel with Arriva to have to spend half their day waiting at the roadside while replacement vehicles are sourced from miles away. This though is Arriva's answer to everything they do, it's all about money not the customer.

Totally agree Robisdave. Everything is run for THEIR convenience not the customers.

A friend of mine was on a Sunday 4A not long before the recent changes. Broke down just near Zetland Park leaving Redcar and the passengers had to wait an hour to transfer to the next bus. On a Sunday!

(21 Apr 2014, 4:21 pm)Davey Bowyer wrote [ -> ]It would be but what about the peak time though?

Yeah I guess but what happens if a bus on a Jesmond operated route broke down and they then had no spare?

(21 Apr 2014, 5:01 pm)Roland Pratt wrote [ -> ]A friend of mine was on a Sunday 4A not long before the recent changes. Broke down just near Zetland Park leaving Redcar and the passengers had to wait an hour to transfer to the next bus. On a Sunday!

That's a poor show considering it happened in Redcar but I would imagine much like Stockton they run on very little resource on a Sunday, so if the fitters are already out dealing with another breakdown (wouldn't be too uncommon at Redcar...) then it may well be an hour or more before they could get to the next one.

Happened to me when I met the 21A in front of me in Sedgefield a week or two ago and had to take his passengers, and that was during the week.

Are spare drivers asigned on shift or do they use supervisor's and office staff to deal with illness and operational problems!Would be interested to find out a typical depot personnel set up....

The attitude demonstrated here, both in what I referred to (x93) and to what Roland refers to his frankly pathetic! How anyone can support or defend what they do and how they operate beats me but is just typical of what Arriva is all about. I've wanted to pick up the pen several times are write to Knox and his cronies but what's the point? Arriva have got us where they want us and can do what they like as no other operator is interested.

(21 Apr 2014, 5:40 pm)buznut wrote [ -> ]Are spare drivers asigned on shift or do they use supervisor's and office staff to deal with illness and operational problems!Would be interested to find out a typical depot personnel set up....

Not entirely sure how other depots work but basing it in Stockton, you've got your operations manager and assistant at the top.

On the operational side you've got one person as a "detailer" who sorts all of the duties out and all drivers problems, filling in lost mileage and dealing with other administration. 2 people are based at the depot dealing with cash, vouchers and other admin tasks including working on new rotas for months in advance (eg our rota change in July was started as the last one came in back in March!).

Then we have 2 inspectors per day, one to supervise the morning run out at the depot (0430-1400 roughly) and then one supervising in Middlesbrough during the day (0800-1800 roughly).

Outside of those hours it is left to the leading driver to sort things out. We have 3 per day, two early and one late. Any drivers who are unable to operate their shift (for whatever reason) has to be covered by these, this includes any "depot operations" (disciplinaries, other meetings etc) that will need the driver relieving during the day for an hour or two. Anything above this relies on drivers being called out on rest day/holiday to cover shifts as required.

There is not a lot of slack in the system when things go wrong to be honest, and I would expect most depots to work in similar ways. Other depots are more constrained in who can do what, with school work having to be operated by DBS checked drivers etc. This often results in depots loaning drivers, indeed at Stockton we have just gone through a period of having 2 drivers on loan from Redcar, whilst one of ours was also recalled from Darlington to help with the shortage!

Have to say Stagecoach ran with a similar amount of spare coverage at Stockton when I was there - however there was always a supervisor on duty (though they could never leave the office) but they only had 2 admin people rather than 3 so the supervisors ended up having to deal with recording lost mileage and lost property etc as well as dealing with the drivers (and manning the radio). They too only had 3 spare drivers per day which were always kept busy doing changeovers and covering lost mileage. They recently increased it to 4 with a daytime spare dedicated to covering lost mileage to get the lost mileage figures down, as they were sky high (mainly due to tight running times).

Many Thanks for the insight tyresmoke.....
I presume refueling & cleaning is done by maintineance team.What is the setup on that aspect of the business.Does a night shift operate to service vehicles when off road?

It's all interesting but running with such resources whilst it has to work from financial point of view often doesn't work in reality particularly when something like lost mileage is talked about or are the service and service frequencies designed in such a way to accommodate this? Maybe Arriva are warming now to the idea that all these tight running times etc are in fact detrimental and at times, costly, to providing an effective and customer satisfying service.

(21 Apr 2014, 7:01 pm)buznut wrote [ -> ]Many Thanks for the insight tyresmoke.....
I presume refueling & cleaning is done by maintineance team.What is the setup on that aspect of the business.Does a night shift operate to service vehicles when off road?

I believe there is an engineering presence overnight yes, though its just for basic stuff like vehicle inspections, any maintenance is done during the day. Most depots now have a reduced PVR on Saturdays as well as Sundays which facilitates two days to do maintenance on a higher number of vehicles too.

(21 Apr 2014, 7:12 pm)robisdave wrote [ -> ]It's all interesting but running with such resources whilst it has to work from financial point of view often doesn't work in reality particularly when something like lost mileage is talked about or are the service and service frequencies designed in such a way to accommodate this? Maybe Arriva are warming now to the idea that all these tight running times etc are in fact detrimental and at times, costly, to providing an effective and customer satisfying service.

Running times are a lot better at Arriva than Stagecoach (in my experience) and any problems seem to be sorted a lot quicker by the pro-active commercial team. Extra resources are put in where required too, something which Stagecoach won't do lightly... They're more about adjusting times by a minute or two here and there, which doesn't really give any material gain.

I was a bit harsh on Arriva earlier but somethings can be annoying and irritating. Having to send a replacement vehicle all the way from Redcar to The Flask for example? They''ve started dropping a spare vehicle/driver into MBS to cover issues at this end on the x93 but it falls apart when there is nothing at Whitby, even an MPD would be better than having to run from Dormanstown?

(20 Apr 2014, 10:53 pm)Tom wrote [ -> ]X1 would deserve MAX more than X26/X27 in my opinion.

I totally agree Tom... X1 best one passenger numbers seem very good.Upgraded buses with wifi would be nice!

(21 Apr 2014, 7:12 pm)robisdave wrote [ -> ]It's all interesting but running with such resources whilst it has to work from financial point of view often doesn't work in reality particularly when something like lost mileage is talked about or are the service and service frequencies designed in such a way to accommodate this? Maybe Arriva are warming now to the idea that all these tight running times etc are in fact detrimental and at times, costly, to providing an effective and customer satisfying service.

That's a commercial business for you though. Cost cutting to the maximum to maintain a profit margin. This isn't unique to Arriva, or even the Transport industry actually. Everyone is at it, but that doesn't make it right.

(21 Apr 2014, 7:01 pm)buznut wrote [ -> ]Many Thanks for the insight tyresmoke.....
I presume refueling & cleaning is done by maintineance team.What is the setup on that aspect of the business.Does a night shift operate to service vehicles when off road?

Probably worth mentioning Stagecoach (at Stockton anyway) didn't have a night shift so all problems were dealt with when the engineers started on a morning about 5am. This often led to 30-40 VORs which was effectively half of the service fleet, it often led to various buses missing on a morning until 8am or so!

Have any more of the Enviro's gone for their refurb yet?

(21 Apr 2014, 5:43 pm)robisdave wrote [ -> ]The attitude demonstrated here, both in what I referred to (x93) and to what Roland refers to his frankly pathetic! How anyone can support or defend what they do and how they operate beats me but is just typical of what Arriva is all about. I've wanted to pick up the pen several times are write to Knox and his cronies but what's the point? Arriva have got us where they want us and can do what they like as no other operator is interested.

I agree with you there. When that crash happened on the A19 a few months back and the TTX was delayed by 45 minutes, to make sure the Middlesborough bound run kept to time from Newcastle at the peak time, GNE didn't just sit there and make the passengers wait and cause serious delays in favour of cost cutting. They allocated 6071 (if that had've been doing the TEN, then 3941/2 or 3963/4) and managed to keep the service running to time from Newcastle to Middlesborough. If they had've just sat there and allowed the delays to prevail in favour of cost cutting, major issues would've occurred.

(22 Apr 2014, 5:53 am)mb134 wrote [ -> ]Have any more of the Enviro's gone for their refurb yet?

7502 I believe has joined 7504 at Thorntons. Should be 2 more going soon, 7501 (which is still at Whitby) and 7503 (which is still at Smiles)...

In reply to Davey B. All this cost cutting, working to tight margins and using limited resources is all well and good when it works and ideal for town based/intensive frequency services where its possible to accommodate issues such as breakdowns without much in the way if disruption. It starts to fall apart somewhat on the longer distances services such as the TTX and X93. GNE do admirably to maintain service and benefit from new fleet, a half hour headway between journeys and, most important, a pro-active management. Arriva on the other hand, in relation to the X93, use cascaded vehicles, have lengthy headways and what seems like a management who are interested in capitalising on this prime; in their defence, the logistics of the route do make it operationally difficult? Apparently getting in and out if Whitby over the Easter weekend was a nightmare? These are issues that can, and should, be circumvented? Having no spare vehicle at Whitby for example? The problem with B7TL 7488 might have been eased; keeping services somewhere near time could have been resolved? Yes it means extra resources and yes it should mean customer satisfaction which in turn is increased revenue. I could, as I've said send ny comments to Nick Knox but is he going to listen?
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I haven't had a chance to look at the timetables online - but does the x1 have a dupe or a short run from Durham on an afternoon?

An alx400 and a branded decker were following each other just south of Coxhoe this afternoon and were both in service.

re the Nick Knox comments - without knowing how pro-active (or not) he is, is he aware of these operating issues?
As far as I am concerned, there is only one way to find out.

(22 Apr 2014, 3:50 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote [ -> ]I haven't had a chance to look at the timetables online - but does the x1 have a dupe or a short run from Durham on an afternoon?

An alx400 and a branded decker were following each other just south of Coxhoe this afternoon and were both in service.

re the Nick Knox comments - without knowing how pro-active (or not) he is, is he aware of these operating issues?
As far as I am concerned, there is only one way to find out.

The X1 doesn't have a dupe no, that finished when the deckers were introduced.

The ALX400 (7477) should have been the 1525 from Durham due through Coxhoe around 1545, guess it was still running late? I saw it going through Stockton towards Middlesbrough around 15-20 late at 1155

Don't know much about the x1 excepting for the fact it must surely be undermined? I was on it Good Friday and the young man from Stockton depot was having to toe it all the way just to keep somewhere near time! A classic example of the Arriva way of managing running times? How he was supposed to manage that route in just an hour, let alone deal with a packed Pulsar was altogether credible.