(05 Apr 2016, 2:04 pm)Dan I can't work out if you're joking, Jimmi?

Don't you go to various gigs and concerts which would result in you standing in places with very little room, and being bumped by other people?

(05 Apr 2016, 2:14 pm)Jimmi I'm not. Difference is I'm usually standing at gigs which doesn't have much affect to my knees but if I am sat down in a tight space which unfortunately this was about the only seat option I could select and the person who sat next to me left me with even less space so I felt like I was crammed into that seat. For the record I had the exact same issue with the Arriva X---GGO Darts that were unfortunately used on the 7 and 64 although mercifully for capacity reasons my 7 to college on a morning used to be Pulsar operated. Also when possible at gigs I find a spot out of the way. Oh and I was also peed off when TWO, not one, two! Morons who got off the 43 in Durham Bus Station walked straight into me, despite the fact I was stood not moving waiting for the 7.

(05 Apr 2016, 2:45 pm)Dan Why didn't you stand on the bus, if you could foresee the problem based on past experience on Arriva's buses? It's a 10-minute journey, so usually tolerable.

Alternatively, you could have waited for the next one. Usually if an X66 is that full, it's because it is actually the bus that was due 7 minutes ago, so it's carrying two loads worth of passengers.

(05 Apr 2016, 3:28 pm)Jimmi The issue was when I boarded I didn't know that this would cause an issue especially as I have limited experience of StreetLite's, but I realised seconds after boarding and the next passenger who boarded sat next to me so I was stuck there really, also people had already started standing at the front by this point as well but there was still seats next to other people so I would have been in the way of people wanting to sit down if I stood up.

Problem is, you never truly know what numbers you are going to get on the X66, sometimes it can be heaving, others it can be dead, although I had already boarded and I thought I was going to be alright, but I wasn't.

It did seem like the bus was there for a while in Gateshead Interchange, possibly a late departure?

(05 Apr 2016, 7:07 pm)Dan I still don't know how you've managed to conclude that Go North East is a terrible company, based on this bad experience? You've admitted yourself that you sometimes see empty Streetlites - imagine the cost to the company, if that was an articulated vehicle? Not forgetting the unnecessary pollution to the environment. There's a bus every 6-7 minutes and quite frankly if I see the queue building up before me boarding, I will wait for the next bus, which is likely to be a lot quieter. More could be done by Go North East to manage passenger loadings, but just because this resource is not present (excluding Christmas time when it is), does not make the company terrible.

Also picking up on your points about no longer defending the company - this is the problem I have with this hobby, at the moment. When I first started to get involved in the hobby, enthusiasts voiced their opinions but never did it seem like a personal vendetta against a company, so other enthusiasts didn't see the need to 'defend' the company. Too many enthusiasts (and this isn't a dig at you but a general observation) are becoming bitter and twisted over little things that they don't like, and it makes the hobby much less enjoyable for me, as it's led to snide remarks being made and hence disagreements between enthusiasts.

(05 Apr 2016, 8:21 pm)Jimmi The other thing with today was I was actually was looking at the number of people in front and behind me when I got to the doors I could see that there was still enough seats and there was only about four people behind me and judging by how long the bus had been there by this point so I was expecting once these people boarded, the bus to be on it's way after this but sadly a rather large number of people appeared around this point and this is when it reached almost full capacity. I don't know why this is the case but StreetLite's seem to be a terrible bus to be on with full/high loadings, I came to the same conclusion on the Arriva Sapphire 5 when I was heading through Middlesbrough at school chucking out time.

This is the burning issue, it's always going to be difficult to get the capacity to match the loadings on the route, was the same with the articulated Citaro's, sometimes even they got really busy but there was occasions where you'd be the only person in the rear section of the bus.

Unfortunately for personal reasons I can't stand having to sit next to someone on an outside seat, a particularly scaring experience was when I waited for a Darlington bound 21 at Peterlee Moorcock one day and a Solo appeared and I walked to the back of the bus and no-one would move their legs and/or bags on the other seat so I had to do a walk of shame back to the front of the bus where I had to stand at the front of the bus where people could laugh at me! Had a similar issue on the Weardale 101 the other day as well, the worst example of that was trying to find a seat on the Arriva X66 when the coaches were used as everyone would sit on the outside seat and you couldn't really stand on them either so a seat had to be found. If I get a X93 during peak summer times, I will often arrive at the stop for the X93 back to Middlesbrough sometimes in excess of 30 minutes so I can get myself an inside seat, especially if I fear a Pulsar, Temsa or Streetlite is going to turn up.

I may have overreacted slightly with the whole "terrible company" thing but in recent weeks and months I have had some issues with buses being late and some not turning up at all, other issues have occurred with the worst being with a driver on the 19 where I tried to board the bus in North Shields and there was someone with a pushchair in the way so I had to ask them to move and as they moved the driver closed the doors and I had to signal that I wished to board and he opened the door and talked to me like absolute shite about it, sorry! I couldn't get to the doors as quick as you wanted me to! At this time I'm not liking the company for some of the bad things that have happened recently but hopefully my views will change again soon.

Unfortunately for personal reasons, I have disagreed with the allocation of StreetLite's on the X66 and today's experience has only added to that, sorry but this is just how I feel about this.

(05 Apr 2016, 8:21 pm)Jimmi Unfortunately for personal reasons I can't stand having to sit next to someone on an outside seat, a particularly scaring experience was when I waited for a Darlington bound 21 at Peterlee Moorcock one day and a Solo appeared and I walked to the back of the bus and no-one would move their legs and/or bags on the other seat so I had to do a walk of shame back to the front of the bus where I had to stand at the front of the bus where people could laugh at me!

(05 Apr 2016, 9:58 pm)GMitchelhill Rightaway I can see this is a classic sign of anxiety issues, I've been in a similar situation myself where you feel as if you exposed and people are watching you, and you think they are laughing at you, but they actually aren't and are just in general acting like normal passengers do which is making a bus journey.

Fortunatley the Anxiety issues I've had has subsided greatly thanks to the therapy I had over the latter half of 2015. I strongly recommend (and I believe a few others will agree with me) looking into this path to try and at least ease the issues you may have.

You're a good kid Jimmi who has taken some great photos. I've seen photos from that enthusiast trip from the weekend, and just be glad you aren't like the "veg" from Yorkshire lol.

(05 Apr 2016, 9:58 pm)GMitchelhill Rightaway I can see this is a classic sign of anxiety issues, I've been in a similar situation myself where you feel as if you exposed and people are watching you, and you think they are laughing at you, but they actually aren't and are just in general acting like normal passengers do which is making a bus journey.

Fortunatley the Anxiety issues I've had has subsided greatly thanks to the therapy I had over the latter half of 2015. I strongly recommend (and I believe a few others will agree with me) looking into this path to try and at least ease the issues you may have.

You're a good kid Jimmi who has taken some great photos. I've seen photos from that enthusiast trip from the weekend, and just be glad you aren't like the "veg" from Yorkshire lol.

(05 Apr 2016, 10:11 pm)Jimmi Yeah, I do have various anxiety problems which causes me problems, especially when I am out and about. Not sure what to do about trying to resolve the problems I have, but perhaps therapy may work but I wouldn't know how to go about sorting that out.

Yeah there does seem to be some Yorkshire veg about. Expect some photos from Manchester next week as I'm there over the weekend.

---

Oh and as if today couldn't get any worse...

One of my teeth has just dropped to bits, I took a bite into a Starburst and the back half of one of my teeth came out with it, at first I thought it was something in the sweet and I'll be honest I wish it was.

So I think it's going to have to come out. Brilliant I'm only 22 and I'm now going to have a missing tooth.

(05 Apr 2016, 10:13 pm)NK53 TKT I do feel for you Jimmi    
Hope tomorrow is a better day for you

(05 Apr 2016, 10:11 pm)Jimmi Yeah, I do have various anxiety problems which causes me problems, especially when I am out and about. Not sure what to do about trying to resolve the problems I have, but perhaps therapy may work but I wouldn't know how to go about sorting that out.

---