Go North East: Latest News & Discussion - May 2016

[Ambassador]

Cracking advert by the Methodist Church at the Shipcote junction in Low Fell.

Picture of an Angel Hybrid with 'Angels visit our church regularly...why don't you?'

Made me laugh!!

[thetravelman]

I visited the Family Fun day at Riverside on Sunday! I thought GNE did a great job. I enjoyed driving the Vykings at the coach park and the depot tour... During the tour we visited a training room and then had a little talk from a depot mentor.... Now he said once a New driver has done his training and passed his test, you go out with a mentor and you learn the 4 new starter/training routes.... Where you stay for approx 6 months.
I believe that the Q3 is one route, but does Dan or anyone know what the other 3 routes are? I'm just curious. i think he said a lot of depots but not all, have the same system in place where new drivers only drive certain routes for the first 6 months or so.

[TEN 6083]

A few weeks ago I was in Stanley and got the V7 to the MetroCentre and a new driver got on it with a Depot Mentor when they done a driver changeover, guess this may be a starter route for Stanley based drivers.


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[thetravelman]

I was speaking with a Hexham driver recently, he recommended Hexham depot as a good starter depot for new drivers, due to its size and routes that it covers. 

He said all drivers initially work all routes excluding the 10 as this a different rota that you progress too through time.

He also said that at Hexham apart from the 10 which is on a different rota, you don't work any Sunday's or Bank Holidays, latest finish is usually around 8 pm apart from one late night, every 14 weeks - I think he said, which I presume is for the weekend evening 74.

But what about the Roman Wall AD122 - what drivers cover that route, I know this is just a summer season route, but it runs 7 days a week including bank holidays!! So do they have separate drivers for this route?

How do they staff the School contract runs in Hexham, especially those that use the coaches, are those specific drivers or just from normal duties?

[Rapidsnap]

Still at Washington Depot this evening and on the 85.

Cheers for that, got it at Concord at around 1825 this evening.

[Jimmi]

Something I've noticed on Google Maps is that for Go North East, the bus stops now list the brand most services carry rather than the route number.


I think this is a bit confusing for just about every branded service, especially the brands which has more than one service number, such as the 28/28A or the 93/94.

I know it's been doing this for Arriva North East for a little while but there's list the brand and service number eg. Sapphire 7 and MAX X66.

[idiot]

Will via Sunderland City Centre be removed for the 61 versas?

[GuyParkRoyal]

The 5 still isn't down as "Whey aye five-0"

The 68 timetable is still online to...

The paper timetables for the 5 are promoting the brand with a Whey aye five 0 Omnicity on the front cover. However the website still needs an update.

[South Tyne Lad]

I visited the Family Fun day at Riverside on Sunday! I thought GNE did a great job. I enjoyed driving the Vykings at the coach park and the depot tour... During the tour we visited a training room and then had a little talk from a depot mentor.... Now he said once a New driver has done his training and passed his test, you go out with a mentor and you learn the 4 new starter/training routes.... Where you stay for approx 6 months.
I believe that the Q3 is one route, but does Dan or anyone know what the other 3 routes are? I'm just curious. i think he said a lot of depots but not all, have the same system in place where new drivers only drive certain routes for the first 6 months or so.

Another Riverside starter route is the South Tyne 88/88A, Regularly see Mentors accompanying drivers on here.

[biglugs@yahoo.com]

Customer got annoyed on 6034 as he thought someone stole the plug sockets
Driver explained it was a old bus

[TEN 6083]

Customer got annoyed on 6034 as he thought someone stole the plug sockets
Driver explained it was a old bus

[emoji1]


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[L469 YVK]

Looking at the R&O Workings thread, I think that it's a wise choice to abandon the GKN mods for the Fab 56 and Cobalt Clipper. Given the nature of the 2x routes, if the need for deckers arose somewhere (Red Kite becoming a fully double deck operation etc), then the mentioned routes would be ideal candidates for StreetDecks due to the stop / start nature plus the potential fuel savings that could be acquired without any expensive modifications or downtime.

[BusLoverMum]

Customer got annoyed on 6034 as he thought someone stole the plug sockets
Driver explained it was a old bus

You couldn't make it up

[Tom]

Has 4974 been in service at Percy Main yet?

[Dan]

Has 4974 been in service at Percy Main yet?

Yes - on afternoon peak time 19s.

[Tom]

Yes - on afternoon peak time 19s.

Cheers

[Jamie M]

(Dan), this green arrow's rear display is messed up.
Looks like displaying bus reversing, badly, whilst moving.

https://flic.kr/p/Ht6EJu

[TEN 6083]

Was on 6096 today and NSA's sometimes were cutting off before completing the sentence of the next stop.


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[Dan]

(Dan), this green arrow's rear display is messed up.
Looks like displaying bus reversing, badly, whilst moving.

https://flic.kr/p/Ht6EJu

Cheers. One for Hanover's attention!

Was on 6096 today and NSA's sometimes were cutting off before completing the sentence of the next stop.


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Cheers.

Based on the route testing I undertook, I think this is likely to be down to the fact that there's some stops on the 56 route which are very close together. If the bus is travelling quite fast between those two stops, it won't have enough time to announce the full thing.

[Mark1]

Something I've noticed on Google Maps is that for Go North East, the bus stops now list the brand most services carry rather than the route number.

I think this is a bit confusing for just about every branded service, especially the brands which has more than one service number, such as the 28/28A or the 93/94.

I know it's been doing this for Arriva North East for a little while but there's list the brand and service number eg. Sapphire 7 and MAX X66.

The list has been updated to show brand and number such as Citylink 57, Citylink 58 etc