(28 Dec 2016, 3:54 pm)Acky81 The 39 is not priority to go north east. Should of just kept the clippers
(28 Dec 2016, 3:54 pm)Acky81 The 39 is not priority to go north east. Should of just kept the clippers
(28 Dec 2016, 3:45 pm)Dan Anyone would think Go North East had a strategy in which they've planned to launch a brand at a specific time...
(28 Dec 2016, 3:45 pm)Dan Anyone would think Go North East had a strategy in which they've planned to launch a brand at a specific time...
(28 Dec 2016, 5:46 pm)Greg in Weardale Over the last few years the only strategy I've noticed GNE has is for reducing services and that seems to be done haphazardly without any overall planning, except you can rely on there being changes in Sunderland every few months!
(28 Dec 2016, 5:46 pm)Greg in Weardale Over the last few years the only strategy I've noticed GNE has is for reducing services and that seems to be done haphazardly without any overall planning, except you can rely on there being changes in Sunderland every few months!
(28 Dec 2016, 5:46 pm)Greg in Weardale Over the last few years the only strategy I've noticed GNE has is for reducing services and that seems to be done haphazardly without any overall planning, except you can rely on there being changes in Sunderland every few months!
(28 Dec 2016, 5:46 pm)Greg in Weardale Over the last few years the only strategy I've noticed GNE has is for reducing services and that seems to be done haphazardly without any overall planning, except you can rely on there being changes in Sunderland every few months!
(28 Dec 2016, 5:46 pm)Greg in Weardale Over the last few years the only strategy I've noticed GNE has is for reducing services and that seems to be done haphazardly without any overall planning, except you can rely on there being changes in Sunderland every few months!
(28 Dec 2016, 6:12 pm)JP6004 Ah yes, the one that was more packed than arrivas boxing day services...
(28 Dec 2016, 6:12 pm)JP6004 Ah yes, the one that was more packed than arrivas boxing day services...
(28 Dec 2016, 6:52 pm)South Tyne Lad While I have barely knowledge in Sunderland's history of bus routes, Overall as a company GNE have, In the past " cut " service's for profit, -
Same with other company's, So really, Whether or not in Sunderland, Greg is right.
(28 Dec 2016, 6:52 pm)South Tyne Lad While I have barely knowledge in Sunderland's history of bus routes, Overall as a company GNE have, In the past " cut " service's for profit, -
Same with other company's, So really, Whether or not in Sunderland, Greg is right.
(28 Dec 2016, 6:52 pm)South Tyne Lad While I have barely knowledge in Sunderland's history of bus routes, Overall as a company GNE have, In the past " cut " service's for profit, -
Same with other company's, So really, Whether or not in Sunderland, Greg is right.
(28 Dec 2016, 6:52 pm)South Tyne Lad While I have barely knowledge in Sunderland's history of bus routes, Overall as a company GNE have, In the past " cut " service's for profit, -
Same with other company's, So really, Whether or not in Sunderland, Greg is right.
Do we not think that the complaining is down to people failing to understand how businesses work? It is very easy to shoot down a business for doing something that goes against the customer without understanding why the business has made the decision that it has made.
All businesses exist to provide a product/service to the people in their target market. If this product/service does not appeal to the people that it is aimed at, it will not make a profit and will, therefore, be very difficult to justify its continuation. If they continued to provide the service at a loss, the business would simply struggle to survive, affecting a much larger group of people. After all, it is very rare for Go North East to remove a service and not to give customers an alternative method of getting to their destination, such as the recent extension of the 202 from Peterlee to Station Town replacing service X7 on that section of the route.
(28 Dec 2016, 7:41 pm)S813 FVK Do we not think that the complaining is down to people failing to understand how businesses work? It is very easy to shoot down a business for doing something that goes against the customer without understanding why the business has made the decision that it has made.
All businesses exist to provide a product/service to the people in their target market. If this product/service does not appeal to the people that it is aimed at, it will not make a profit and will, therefore, be very difficult to justify its continuation. If they continued to provide the service at a loss, the business would simply struggle to survive, affecting a much larger group of people. After all, it is very rare for Go North East to remove a service and not to give customers an alternative method of getting to their destination, such as the recent extension of the 202 from Peterlee to Station Town replacing service X7 on that section of the route.
(28 Dec 2016, 7:41 pm)S813 FVK Do we not think that the complaining is down to people failing to understand how businesses work? It is very easy to shoot down a business for doing something that goes against the customer without understanding why the business has made the decision that it has made.
All businesses exist to provide a product/service to the people in their target market. If this product/service does not appeal to the people that it is aimed at, it will not make a profit and will, therefore, be very difficult to justify its continuation. If they continued to provide the service at a loss, the business would simply struggle to survive, affecting a much larger group of people. After all, it is very rare for Go North East to remove a service and not to give customers an alternative method of getting to their destination, such as the recent extension of the 202 from Peterlee to Station Town replacing service X7 on that section of the route.
(28 Dec 2016, 7:41 pm)S813 FVK Do we not think that the complaining is down to people failing to understand how businesses work? It is very easy to shoot down a business for doing something that goes against the customer without understanding why the business has made the decision that it has made.
All businesses exist to provide a product/service to the people in their target market. If this product/service does not appeal to the people that it is aimed at, it will not make a profit and will, therefore, be very difficult to justify its continuation. If they continued to provide the service at a loss, the business would simply struggle to survive, affecting a much larger group of people. After all, it is very rare for Go North East to remove a service and not to give customers an alternative method of getting to their destination, such as the recent extension of the 202 from Peterlee to Station Town replacing service X7 on that section of the route.
(28 Dec 2016, 7:41 pm)S813 FVK Do we not think that the complaining is down to people failing to understand how businesses work? It is very easy to shoot down a business for doing something that goes against the customer without understanding why the business has made the decision that it has made.
All businesses exist to provide a product/service to the people in their target market. If this product/service does not appeal to the people that it is aimed at, it will not make a profit and will, therefore, be very difficult to justify its continuation. If they continued to provide the service at a loss, the business would simply struggle to survive, affecting a much larger group of people. After all, it is very rare for Go North East to remove a service and not to give customers an alternative method of getting to their destination, such as the recent extension of the 202 from Peterlee to Station Town replacing service X7 on that section of the route.
(28 Dec 2016, 7:48 pm)Adrian But it is irrelevant if the customer understands the business behind it or not. There seems to quite often be the misconception that the consumer cares about how a company achieves it's margins, how it justifies it mark up pricing or what not. It is not their concern, and quite frankly most of them will not care. It is up to a business to remain competitive but still provide a product or service to meet the customer's expectations at a price where they feel value. Otherwise, and quite simply, they'll go elsewhere.
Unfortunately, the majority of bus operators' customers' do not have that choice, because competition is so scarce. They find that the only alternative is often to learn to drive/take the car.
(28 Dec 2016, 7:48 pm)Adrian But it is irrelevant if the customer understands the business behind it or not. There seems to quite often be the misconception that the consumer cares about how a company achieves it's margins, how it justifies it mark up pricing or what not. It is not their concern, and quite frankly most of them will not care. It is up to a business to remain competitive but still provide a product or service to meet the customer's expectations at a price where they feel value. Otherwise, and quite simply, they'll go elsewhere.
Unfortunately, the majority of bus operators' customers' do not have that choice, because competition is so scarce. They find that the only alternative is often to learn to drive/take the car.
I'm also aware of the fact that GNE is not the only company frequently altering services - Arriva always seem to be doing it north of the Tyne, but my comment was in relation to Dan saying GNE have a strategy, which it doesn't seem to. Look at the number of times buses are repainted or buses rebranded without any thought of what was to happen to that brand like when OmniCitys, for example, were branded Toonlink only a month or two before the brand changed routes - the X30/1 therefore had to be Toonlink as well as the unrelated 12/12A to justify the repainting. I don't take much interest in Stagecoach, only really knowing a bit about their Teesside operations and, as I've said before, thought Arriva are pretty rubbish, although they seem to have been improving over the last few years, whilst GNE seem to have been declining. I don't know enough about Arriva, especially north of the Tyne, to know if their regular changes are in fact cuts. The latest Go Ahead report did say however that their North East operations are experiencing difficulties which have affected corporate financial results this year.
The X30/X31 becoming part of the Toon Link network was not the original plan, it was the 96 that was going to join the brand, interworking with the 11 which was already part of the brand. I would say that the 96 had no relation to the 11/12/12A either other than the fact it interworked with one of those services.
I have to agree with you on that Greg.
Another example is also the changes to the 17/17A etc... The 40/41 got new buses and then changed juat after, meaning 4 older Solo Sr's had to be repainted to join the brand.
Cobalt Clipper too, they changed them after they got new buses so the PVR went up meaning they lost a spare....
I bet it happens with the new buses arriving too.
(28 Dec 2016, 8:35 pm)Michael I have to agree with you on that Greg.
Another example is also the changes to the 17/17A etc... The 40/41 got new buses and then changed juat after, meaning 4 older Solo Sr's had to be repainted to join the brand.
Cobalt Clipper too, they changed them after they got new buses so the PVR went up meaning they lost a spare....
I bet it happens with the new buses arriving too.
(28 Dec 2016, 8:35 pm)Michael I have to agree with you on that Greg.
Another example is also the changes to the 17/17A etc... The 40/41 got new buses and then changed juat after, meaning 4 older Solo Sr's had to be repainted to join the brand.
Cobalt Clipper too, they changed them after they got new buses so the PVR went up meaning they lost a spare....
I bet it happens with the new buses arriving too.
When I moved from Norfolk to Weardale in 2009 Go North East was interesting and innovative and, let's face it, Arriva was pretty bad. GNE was led by dynamic manager(s), ran what seemed to me logical timetables in a good overall network. I thought it a positive move that various less frequent routes were grouped into single 10 minute headway services eg X1, 27, 56. But over the last few years the innovation and dynamism have gone and we have too-frequent piecemeal chopping and changing and some really badly designed timetables - but in spite of the cuts the finances aren't improving according to the comments in the annual report. I have no knowledge of Arriva's financial performance, but they've definitely improved the public perception of themselves with Sapphire, Max and Frequenta, even though Max is often just tarting up pretty ancient buses. GNE must reverse the decline and in my humble opinion (as a bus company manager in a previous life) that can be done by looking at their network as a whole, rather than by frequent bitty individual route changes, and simplifying the fare structure - cheapish area tickets are OK for regular passengers changing buses, but you've got to attract occasional users as well who want a reasonably priced day return from A to B and an incentive not to take the car.
