(25 Jun 2022, 4:03 pm)Adrian When I've been out and about today (and to be honest, the whole of this week), its more noticeable than ever just how sick of these disruptions the public are getting.

I've seen multiple instances of drivers getting it in the neck from irate customers, both on the bus and whilst they're waiting to take a bus on (e.g. at Chester front street). Whilst I think its bang out of order the way some customers talk to drivers, I think its sadly becoming inevitable due to the amount of disruption.

There's also more and more people complaining about it in conversation, e.g. when I'm on board or waiting for a bus. A 56 I used earlier, apparently the one prior didnt turn up, the one after was cancelled, and the one we boarded was being cut short at Gateshead. Is this the active regulation that Martijn Gilbert referenced on twitter?

I wonder just how much these operators, and I know its not just GNE, are shooting themselves in the foot right now. As I've said before, why would anyone switch to bus, unless you like ending up pissed off? 

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(25 Jun 2022, 4:03 pm)Adrian When I've been out and about today (and to be honest, the whole of this week), its more noticeable than ever just how sick of these disruptions the public are getting.

I've seen multiple instances of drivers getting it in the neck from irate customers, both on the bus and whilst they're waiting to take a bus on (e.g. at Chester front street). Whilst I think its bang out of order the way some customers talk to drivers, I think its sadly becoming inevitable due to the amount of disruption.

There's also more and more people complaining about it in conversation, e.g. when I'm on board or waiting for a bus. A 56 I used earlier, apparently the one prior didnt turn up, the one after was cancelled, and the one we boarded was being cut short at Gateshead. Is this the active regulation that Martijn Gilbert referenced on twitter?

I wonder just how much these operators, and I know its not just GNE, are shooting themselves in the foot right now. As I've said before, why would anyone switch to bus, unless you like ending up pissed off?

(25 Jun 2022, 8:39 pm)Jimmi It's a terrible situation, it's little wonder there's shortages, I wouldn't want to be paid peanuts to have to have complaints and gripes from passengers and I cannot say I blame the passengers either with how much of a joke some of the services have been of late, after my debacle with the 25 not running and instead being made to get an 82 and two 21's to reach my destination of Eldon Square, well near it! can imagine how f'd off I was by the time we made it to our destination, literally as we pulled into Gateshead Interchange on the 21 and the NSA played "this bus will terminate at the next stop" I just went "you are taking the piss?!" Didn't get much happier when we were made to get off at a stop that wasn't Eldon Square so the bus could f**k off, sorry, "active regulation" which is what they want us to say.

One thing I hate with GNE lately is how they claim they don't have the resources to do their own service work yet they sharp managed to pull out the resources out to cover an emergency rail replacement from Newcastle to Edinburgh the other evening, can only see things getting worse for that especially on upcoming Saturdays with Metro Replacements and Kynryn to provide resources for. 

One thing I've gotta say is, it doesn't matter what the excuse is for disruptions, just one bad experience is enough to lose passengers, I've had months of cancellations from Arriva and now GNE services which I also tend to use are suffering from much the same fate (argubly worse from the latter now but was certainly the case from Arriva more in previous months)

One thing I will give Arriva and Stagecoach is they've at least reduced some frequencies to attempt to deal with the resource issues, granted there's still problems there whereas GNE seem to be sticking their fingers in their ears and going "la la la la la la la la" and act like everything's fine.

(25 Jun 2022, 8:39 pm)Jimmi One thing I hate with GNE lately is how they claim they don't have the resources to do their own service work yet they sharp managed to pull out the resources out to cover an emergency rail replacement from Newcastle to Edinburgh the other evening, can only see things getting worse for that especially on upcoming Saturdays with Metro Replacements and Kynryn to provide resources for.

(26 Jun 2022, 1:46 am)Bazza Are these disruptions caused solely by driver shortages? Or is it a lack of working buses?

Across the three main operators I would say probably a combination of the two, but mainly the lack of drivers. 

This has been a problem for some time now, more than enough time to to solve it if it was an attractive job to go into as recruitment and retention wouldn’t be a problem.

The operators need to return to basics.  And if it means working together to provide services that get people from a to b when they want to travel then that is what they should do.

(25 Jun 2022, 7:31 pm)Unber43 The cancellations for the 25/X21/28/28A are quite bad for Sunday

(26 Jun 2022, 9:02 am)ifm001 Even more so confusing when the 28A does not run on a Sunday 
Granted cancellations are listed for 28B but the phantom cancelled journeys on 28A make it appear to be increased cancellations

Resulting in a bus at 1710 from Newcastle to Kibblesworth then nothing for just shy of 4 hours until 2105.

(Mind this could be a tester for end of July when there is no Sunday service, so a practice run really)

(26 Jun 2022, 9:02 am)ifm001 Even more so confusing when the 28A does not run on a Sunday 
Granted cancellations are listed for 28B but the phantom cancelled journeys on 28A make it appear to be increased cancellations

Resulting in a bus at 1710 from Newcastle to Kibblesworth then nothing for just shy of 4 hours until 2105.

(Mind this could be a tester for end of July when there is no Sunday service, so a practice run really)

(26 Jun 2022, 9:32 am)Rob44 According to the website the 410 and 510 are running on the 28b or they better be as thats when I finish work!

Plus we were told that the 28b will continue to run on a Sunday - have you heard differently as I doubt nexus would leave lamsly and the surrounding area without a bus on a Sunday?

(26 Jun 2022, 9:55 am)Dan Durham County Council are funding the new 28/29 and they originally did not propose to have a Sunday service, so Go North East announced earlier this week that there would be no Sunday service.

Durham County Council has since revised its plans, and there will now be a 28/28B service on Sundays, and Go North East’s website has been updated accordingly.


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(26 Jun 2022, 10:20 am)Rob44 Cheers Dan thats what i thought. Are DCC paying for the 28b new - kibb buses though? thought that would be Nexus?

(26 Jun 2022, 1:46 am)Bazza Are these disruptions caused solely by driver shortages? Or is it a lack of working buses?

Across the three main operators I would say probably a combination of the two, but mainly the lack of drivers. 

This has been a problem for some time now, more than enough time to to solve it if it was an attractive job to go into as recruitment and retention wouldn’t be a problem.

The operators need to return to basics.  And if it means working together to provide services that get people from a to b when they want to travel then that is what they should do.

(26 Jun 2022, 7:40 pm)Thomas12 One thing I am interested in - how have the services with better reliability/low cancellations recovered compared to the ones with a high number of short notice cancellations?

For example - The Coaster 1. It's extremely rare that it is affected by short notice cancellations - and I've noticed services getting increasingly busy at the minute. 

However, how have services at Consett faired in their recovery in comparison?

(27 Jun 2022, 1:10 pm)Unber43 When do we see Drivers shortages end, cos I think it could go into 2023 and 18 months of the same thing, its not getting better its getting worse.