Does anyone know what's going on with Ashington tonight, there's some nasty gaps floating around especially the 2.5 hour gap on the X21 leaving Newcastle and the 35 is every 2 hours, as of writing?
Assume it's not fleet related at this time of night. I know there was talk of other depots bailing out the Stockton mess but they can't be stupid enough to cause massive issues elsewhere to bail out another depot?
(21 Sep 2026, 6:27 pm)Storx wrote [ -> ]Does anyone know what's going on with Ashington tonight, there's some nasty gaps floating around especially the 2.5 hour gap on the X21 leaving Newcastle and the 35 is every 2 hours, as of writing?
Assume it's not fleet related at this time of night. I know there was talk of other depots bailing out the Stockton mess but they can't be stupid enough to cause massive issues elsewhere to bail out another depot?
Stockton have drivers on loan from Birkenhead, Selby and Luton to help out their situation
Looks like the X7/8/9 are suffering today, dunno if it is related to what's in the title of this thread, i did notice my inbound X8 turned into the 43, while this morning my inbound X7 turned into the X10 (which i presumed was normal), but i also so an X8 drop onto the 308 at Haymarket (which to my knowledge isn't normal), but i noticed a poster at the stand for the X7/8/9 at Haymarket and it said the X7 at 17:25 is cancelled and the X9 at 19:05 is also
(20 Oct 2026, 4:20 pm)V514DFT wrote [ -> ]Looks like the X7/8/9 are suffering today, dunno if it is related to what's in the title of this thread, i did notice my inbound X8 turned into the 43, while this morning my inbound X7 turned into the X10 (which i presumed was normal), but i also so an X8 drop onto the 308 at Haymarket (which to my knowledge isn't normal), but i noticed a poster at the stand for the X7/8/9 at Haymarket and it said the X7 at 17:25 is cancelled and the X9 at 19:05 is also
I was due to start at Arriva Blyth depot which run these services on 26th October 2026 but because I’ve been at stagecoach Slatyford 11 years I decided to turn it down but I may look at it again in 2027 but if they’re struggling to keep drivers maybe it’s not a good place to work….
(20 Oct 2026, 4:20 pm)V514DFT wrote [ -> ]Looks like the X7/8/9 are suffering today, dunno if it is related to what's in the title of this thread, i did notice my inbound X8 turned into the 43, while this morning my inbound X7 turned into the X10 (which i presumed was normal), but i also so an X8 drop onto the 308 at Haymarket (which to my knowledge isn't normal), but i noticed a poster at the stand for the X7/8/9 at Haymarket and it said the X7 at 17:25 is cancelled and the X9 at 19:05 is also
The Blyth interworking patterns have no pattern whatsoever. There are some X8’s which become 308’s at Haymarket (15:28 off Blyth becomes the 16:45 308 off Haymarket for example). Cancelled journeys aside, everything you’ve stated happened are booked workings. The 17:25 X7 runs off the 16:03 X8 from Blyth, the 19:05 X9 runs off a 306 which originates off Blyth as the 14:00 308. So in the first case it will have been no driver, in second case an earlier no driver has meant no bus. Sickness is rather high atm in the depot which isn’t uncommon this time of year and priority is given to the contracted services.
(21 Oct 2026, 5:59 pm)TransitObserver wrote [ -> ]I was due to start at Arriva Blyth depot which run these services on 26th October 2026 but because I’ve been at stagecoach Slatyford 11 years I decided to turn it down but I may look at it again in 2027 but if they’re struggling to keep drivers maybe it’s not a good place to work….
You thought better of GNE in the end? Out of interest, what were the hours at Blyth?
(22 Oct 2026, 12:54 pm)Chris 1 wrote [ -> ]You thought better of GNE in the end? Out of interest, what were the hours at Blyth?
GNE from what I was told by the recruiters make new starters work 45 hours a week! Wasn’t prepared to work that many hours.
Hours at Blyth weren’t horrendous. Guaranteed 39hrs but on the main 102 line rota most weeks are between 39.5hrs and 42hrs but majority average around the 40hr mark. You get paid what you work as well. Some decent duties finishing 11:30 12pm but there were some that were working 10 hours. An example was 5:55 until 16:55 paying you 10hr 15min but break was only 38 minutes.