I see the 17, 18 and 116 are being show as withdrawn from the end of October, is this true?
I was going to take some photos of their Aycliffe Town services this afternoon and the first thing I saw was the 17 coming back from Cobblers Hall running over 15 minutes late - how the hell do you rack up a 15 minute delay on this service WTF are you doing does it seriously take you over 30 minutes to get to Cobblers Hall and back, seriously what are you doing.
Then for the 116 - why drive round the Dandy Cart and Stephenson Way when you can sit at Greenwell Road for 20 minutes, I actually rode a Heighington bound 116 round the town this afternoon and in typical fashion the driver of the 116 and 17/18 were not dressed very smart and as got past Cobblers Hall the driver started to blast out some Clubland style noise which I'm sure the old woman who were onboard are massive fans of.
I hope they don't run all their services like they run these services and if they do I hope they lose there other services.
It is also worrying to see notices on their bus stating "bus passes must be shown by order of DCC" which to me implies that they been in trouble with people not showing passes.
I will not really be sad to see these services go, but I will feel sorry for the elderly and disabled passengers who will be left with no bus service come the end of October.
Only 3 weeks left to go now for the 17/18/116.
Don't suppose anyone knows whether Newton Aycliffe will still have a town bus service after this date and if so who will be operating it?
What happening to the buses they have cause don't need all 6 buses
(16 Oct 2014, 3:07 pm)Jimmi wrote [ -> ]Following the withdrawal of the Arriva service 87, SB Travel will now be operating earlier and later journeys on services 108/109 from October 26th.
http://durham.pindarcreative.co.uk/tt2/108_109.pdf
Just a straight swap of contracts with Arriva for the evening 6s, prior to them seeing some investment next year.
Tomorrow is the last day of the Newton Aycliffe Town Services 17/18/116
THANK GOD! I thought I'd get some photos of the services today before they are withdrawn and that turned out well, got some photos of the 17/116 on Burn Lane then I went onto Westmorland Way got get another photo of the 17 as no buses will be going down there after tomorrow, I waited until about 1025 for it to come back and then gave up (was due back at the Town Centre at 1015!).
These services are a (word I can't say in this thread) joke, its totally pathetic, could the reason why the new 17 won't be serving Westmorland Way because of low passenger numbers and could those low passenger numbers be because they were stood there 15 minutes waiting for the bus and it hasn't turned up. I even spotted the bus parked in the Tesco Extra car park before so it seems their shopping is more important than their passengers,.
It often seems to be running late too, I know the 116 timetable is impossible to keep to, but how the hell can you rack up a delay of over 15 minutes on the 17/18.
Also there is the issue of missing parts of the route out and even dropping whole journeys, this often happened on the 116 as they'd often stop on Greenwell Road and not do the journey via Pease Way, Williamfield Way and Stephenson Way and would often just sit there until it was time to go back to Heighington.
I have seen a driver driving around town with the doors open and what would happen if a passenger was stood at the front of the bus and the driver had to brake suddenly and the passengers lose grip on the handrail and ends up falling out through the open doors into the road (I know this is a long shot but it could happen).
Also how can we tell which bus is which when you set the destination to JSB Travel and where its going.
I'm glad JSB Travel will no longer be a cancer on Newton Aycliffe and I hope the new Town Service operated by The Eden will be better than the shambolic operation of these services in days of late.
Now to quote a Steam / Bananarama song:
Na na na na
Na na na na
Hey hey hey
Goodbye
I'm extrememly surprised at what you have said Jimmi as my experience of them has been fantastic when they operated the 52 Durham-East Hedleyhope. The drivers were always proffesional and friendly, knew the manager well too and was quite happy telling you everything about the company when asked.
Also, SB Travel have now given V470 GBF to The Eden of West Auckland.
http://northerntransport.zenfolio.com/p7...#h2d92e09c
My burning issue with the Aycliffe Towns was the 116 which they took over from Central Coaches after it failed to operate as a commercial service. The route was Heighington - Aycliffe Town Centre but before heading back to Heighington there was a circular journey round the town which I live on part of that route and it was frequently missed out especially on an afternoon with the driver often pulling up at the start point for the Heighington journey and sitting there until departure time.
Also around the time they lost the contract for service 7 from Spenny - Shildon I rode the service to Shildon at school time and upon arrival in Coundon there was some parents questioning why the bus hadn't turned up that morning and all the driver could say who the driver was.
PB0003982/20 - JOHN JAMES BRUNSKILL & SHARON BRUNSKILL T/A JSB TRAVEL / S & S TRAVEL, 13 HILLSIDE ROAD, COUNDON, BISHOP AUCKLAND, DL14 8LS
Variation Accepted by SN: Operating between Bishop Auckland bus station and Bedburn Drive given service number 9 effective from 13-Jan-2015. To amend Route and Stopping Places.
Going to hazard a guess its related to the roadworks in Bishop Auckland.
They had a Dennis\Alexander 200 on the Bishop-to Oakenshaw service yesterday must have just been adding it to the fleet.
SB07JSB is now back at SB Travel after it's loan to The Eden and was operating service 108 today.
(17 Feb 2015, 10:54 am)tyresmoke wrote [ -> ]Interestingly it seems JSB are selling a Plaxton Primo CN57EFK on eBay - anyone seen this in use?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2007-57-plaxto...ltDomain_3&hash=item19fbba7b4a
I saw it in use on service 108 a couple of Saturdays ago it is painted blue and white They once had one on loan from a rental company a few years ago
(17 Feb 2015, 8:34 pm)upt50k wrote [ -> ]I saw it in use on service 108 a couple of Saturdays ago it is painted blue and white They once had one on loan from a rental company a few years ago
Primo on service 109 today
(17 Feb 2015, 10:54 am)tyresmoke wrote [ -> ]Interestingly it seems JSB are selling a Plaxton Primo CN57EFK on eBay - anyone seen this in use?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2007-57-plaxto...ltDomain_3&hash=item19fbba7b4a
It was in service on the 108 today.
It is all white, has a rear advert for A. Blair Tree Care and has SB TRAVEL and the phone number on the rear window.
Sadly I was already on the 5A so was unable to get a photo.
(10 Apr 2015, 6:15 pm)Tommy_1581 wrote [ -> ]They haven't sold it then....?!
Judging by the fact it now has SB Travel vinyls (didn't have SB Travel on the front on Tuesday) I would assume it will be staying.
it would appear JSB has most of their fleet for sale
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Optare-Solo/11...0005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3D11a8fa4e95cc48c6908c7a87e450f8bc%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D201334981502&rt=nc
(07 May 2015, 4:13 pm)jaimzm wrote [ -> ]it would appear JSB has most of their fleet for sale http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Optare-Solo/11...0005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3D11a8fa4e95cc48c6908c7a87e450f8bc%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D201334981502&rt=nc
i dont know if it is true but it has been rumored that JSB are selling most of their fleet to allow new vehicles to operater with their company.
Any idea what new Buses are arriving
(20 Jun 2015, 7:05 pm)BUSFAN wrote [ -> ]Any idea what new Buses are arriving
Probably more bog standard Solos, id imagine
(20 Jun 2015, 8:21 pm)South Tyne Lad wrote [ -> ]Probably more bog standard Solos, id imagine
the driver that told me was plain about it was just "new buses " thats all
Just seen the driver on the 109 driving with the doors open.
I feel it is totally unacceptable to drive a bus with the doors open especially when carrying passengers.
This is far from rare from SB Travel too, see the linked photo (although I don't think any passengers were on-board).
https://flic.kr/p/p9JkM7
Since the advent of buses they have driven around with no doors, with little problem until people started faking compensation claims by staging accidents. The first batch of London Transport front entrance RFs had no doors either. As long as no-one is standing on the front "platform" I see no problem. I occasionally drove with doors open (on buses where it is possible) on hot days with a sweltering bus, but always closed doors when approaching a stop.
Dose anyone know what's the address for JSB Depot
(05 Aug 2015, 4:47 pm)jaimzm wrote [ -> ]Dose anyone know what's the address for JSB Depot
According to a Google search
13 Hillside Road, Bishop Auckland, County Durham DL14 8LS