A question? Has service 63 always operated the same route, Redcar to Middlesbrough? My recollection, and certainly photos that I've seen, tell me that this route has been operated by double deck vehicles and if I'm correct here, how did they manage the low bridge between Ormesby and Stewart's Park (Martin)?
And talking of service 63 why not offer the option of faster 'X' journeies? Two trips out of 6 per hour that already operate might just increase profitability?
In response to 'tvd' and the X56. Yes I well remember this and just how popular it was; I lived in Guisborough at the time and had call to use this service regularly. To that end I was quite vorcifaroius with my comments regarding its removal to be told that connections, and I use the word loosely, would be available at Loftus. Like the comments raised about changing buses at Swans Corner to get to Stokesley/Great Ayton from Guisborough, it didn't and doesn't work. Now, although I'm not in Guisborough we are dependant on the X93 to travel to Whitby/Scarborough as the idea of the all around the houses X4 just doesn't work.
It has the potential to be true, part of Arriva's operating policy I feel. Surely with.a little clever management a more suitable vehicle could have been sourced. Again the X12 is one of Arriva's premier routes and should be operated and marketed as such.
Arrival pink Quorum Solo running around Boldon and Sunderland City Centre and Pallion today. Thought it may have just been engineers or someone on way to Head Office at Doxford Park but was too quick heading from City Centre to Pallion from being first seen at Boldon.
More than just the driver on board.
Wonder if anything is being viewed South of Tyne and North of Wear or just the bus on a wander.
(13 Feb 2020, 3:46 pm)ifm001 Arrival pink Quorum Solo running around Boldon and Sunderland City Centre and Pallion today. Thought it may have just been engineers or someone on way to Head Office at Doxford Park but was too quick heading from City Centre to Pallion from being first seen at Boldon.
More than just the driver on board.
Wonder if anything is being viewed South of Tyne and North of Wear or just the bus on a wander.
(13 Feb 2020, 3:46 pm)ifm001 Arrival pink Quorum Solo running around Boldon and Sunderland City Centre and Pallion today. Thought it may have just been engineers or someone on way to Head Office at Doxford Park but was too quick heading from City Centre to Pallion from being first seen at Boldon.
More than just the driver on board.
Wonder if anything is being viewed South of Tyne and North of Wear or just the bus on a wander.
(13 Feb 2020, 3:46 pm)ifm001 Arrival pink Quorum Solo running around Boldon and Sunderland City Centre and Pallion today. Thought it may have just been engineers or someone on way to Head Office at Doxford Park but was too quick heading from City Centre to Pallion from being first seen at Boldon.
More than just the driver on board.
Wonder if anything is being viewed South of Tyne and North of Wear or just the bus on a wander.
(13 Feb 2020, 3:46 pm)ifm001 Arrival pink Quorum Solo running around Boldon and Sunderland City Centre and Pallion today. Thought it may have just been engineers or someone on way to Head Office at Doxford Park but was too quick heading from City Centre to Pallion from being first seen at Boldon.
More than just the driver on board.
Wonder if anything is being viewed South of Tyne and North of Wear or just the bus on a wander.
(13 Feb 2020, 3:46 pm)ifm001 Arrival pink Quorum Solo running around Boldon and Sunderland City Centre and Pallion today. Thought it may have just been engineers or someone on way to Head Office at Doxford Park but was too quick heading from City Centre to Pallion from being first seen at Boldon.
More than just the driver on board.
Wonder if anything is being viewed South of Tyne and North of Wear or just the bus on a wander.
(13 Feb 2020, 3:46 pm)ifm001 Arrival pink Quorum Solo running around Boldon and Sunderland City Centre and Pallion today. Thought it may have just been engineers or someone on way to Head Office at Doxford Park but was too quick heading from City Centre to Pallion from being first seen at Boldon.
More than just the driver on board.
Wonder if anything is being viewed South of Tyne and North of Wear or just the bus on a wander.
(13 Feb 2020, 4:07 pm)Michael Only services which go that way is the 592 and 593 but none of those go to Boldon.No
New service?
I'd like to comment on the BTL9 (7401-6) situation but as people don't seem to like engaging in "conversation" on here, I'll not bother.
(12 Feb 2020, 3:28 pm)Storx Can't argue with that but that could be said mostly about most the North East really. The fact there's one bus that runs to Teesside Park which is the main the shopping area for Teesside pretty much sums up how outdated the network is down in Teesside to me then people wonder why everyone is driving. I don't know the Redcar area enough though to comment on it directly though.
It's a similar story with Silverlink and Team Valley which unless you like walking for miles you can't really get to without driving then the council wonder why they have traffic problems yet still approve extensions and more units at them. (All 3 have had new stuff built in the last couple years).
(12 Feb 2020, 3:28 pm)Storx Can't argue with that but that could be said mostly about most the North East really. The fact there's one bus that runs to Teesside Park which is the main the shopping area for Teesside pretty much sums up how outdated the network is down in Teesside to me then people wonder why everyone is driving. I don't know the Redcar area enough though to comment on it directly though.
It's a similar story with Silverlink and Team Valley which unless you like walking for miles you can't really get to without driving then the council wonder why they have traffic problems yet still approve extensions and more units at them. (All 3 have had new stuff built in the last couple years).
It's simple really. People here on Teeside are sick of Arriva. No consultation, and if there was it wouldn't be listened to, and continual service alterations and cuts. Nothing to promote the cause and entice the public back. As for other operators taking a hand in things, it's not going to happen is it unless someone has money to throw at such. Just look at what happened to Stage carriage or was it Bus4.
(13 Feb 2020, 8:19 pm)Andreos1 Totally agree.
It's as though it's a race to the bottom.
Money not being made from certain routes (or not as much as they would like anyway) and they get axed and fleets get smaller.
I genuinely wish (and challenge) at least one of the operators to take a punt - creating a service which is different and can make them money, rather than more of the same, just with a different livery and a few bits of tech thrown in.
I can remember when Nexus did a huge survey a few years back. They visited libraries/community centres and spoke to people about what they wanted.
The sample must have been huge!
Either way, they identified where people wanted to go and proposed a whole load of new routes as part of the provisional QCS scheme (or at least a forerunner of it).
I've yet to see any of the operators make use of the mass of qualative or quantative data made available on a big scale (I think the X24 was one of the routes identified by Nexus. Not sure of any others).
It makes me wonder how ambitious these commercial departments really are or if as we see with the rumoured Teesside changes, they're just interested in saving pennies.
(13 Feb 2020, 8:19 pm)Andreos1 Totally agree.
It's as though it's a race to the bottom.
Money not being made from certain routes (or not as much as they would like anyway) and they get axed and fleets get smaller.
I genuinely wish (and challenge) at least one of the operators to take a punt - creating a service which is different and can make them money, rather than more of the same, just with a different livery and a few bits of tech thrown in.
I can remember when Nexus did a huge survey a few years back. They visited libraries/community centres and spoke to people about what they wanted.
The sample must have been huge!
Either way, they identified where people wanted to go and proposed a whole load of new routes as part of the provisional QCS scheme (or at least a forerunner of it).
I've yet to see any of the operators make use of the mass of qualative or quantative data made available on a big scale (I think the X24 was one of the routes identified by Nexus. Not sure of any others).
It makes me wonder how ambitious these commercial departments really are or if as we see with the rumoured Teesside changes, they're just interested in saving pennies.
With you on what you say about Arriva. There is no, or little ambition or interest across the board, from management through to the operating staff, and it shows. I've commented here about service 63 double (and odd times triple) running and yesterday we had the classic example. An 18 minute wait at James Cook Hospital on what is supposed to be a route with a 5 minute headway between buses then what do we get? 4 buses in a row! An Arriva 63, packed, an Arriva 29 followed by a Stagecoach service 10 and lastly another Arriva 63, empty! You couldn't make it but then it's a fairly regular occurrence as no-one is interested in some form of timetable/operating regulation and the passengers have, or are, throwing the towel in
(13 Feb 2020, 9:38 pm)scanialover With you on what you say about Arriva. There is no, or little ambition or interest across the board, from management through to the operating staff, and it shows. I've commented here about service 63 double (and odd times triple) running and yesterday we had the classic example. An 18 minute wait at James Cook Hospital on what is supposed to be a route with a 5 minute headway between buses then what do we get? 4 buses in a row! An Arriva 63, packed, an Arriva 29 followed by a Stagecoach service 10 and lastly another Arriva 63, empty! You couldn't make it but then it's a fairly regular occurrence as no-one is interested in some form of timetable/operating regulation and the passengers have, or are, throwing the towel in
(13 Feb 2020, 9:38 pm)scanialover With you on what you say about Arriva. There is no, or little ambition or interest across the board, from management through to the operating staff, and it shows. I've commented here about service 63 double (and odd times triple) running and yesterday we had the classic example. An 18 minute wait at James Cook Hospital on what is supposed to be a route with a 5 minute headway between buses then what do we get? 4 buses in a row! An Arriva 63, packed, an Arriva 29 followed by a Stagecoach service 10 and lastly another Arriva 63, empty! You couldn't make it but then it's a fairly regular occurrence as no-one is interested in some form of timetable/operating regulation and the passengers have, or are, throwing the towel in
So just what is the point of timetables? Let's just let the drivers go and pick their bus up and do what they like. The attitude demonstrated here does typify in some way just how people accept the standard of bus travel.
Keeping to time all the time and having no bunching of frequent services like the 63 is pretty impossible, to be fair to Arriva.
There's the level crossing in Redcar that can hold them up both way, as well as all the traffic lights and usual congestion on the roads. And we've all seen buses running late only to get to a stop only then for the boarding passengers to ask questions, look all over for their money or pass, and basically delay things even more.
So the first bus gets delayed and end up picking up passengers who intended boarding the next bus - which in turn is quieter and can keep to its time easier, ending up behind the earlier one.
The inevitability of bus travel these days and despite my grumble about service 63 being from the area I know just how difficult it is to maintain time. I'd thought of things like turning late running services short and some sort of radio control management but this is Middlesbrough not London and it's just best, a fact, we stick with what we've got.
(14 Feb 2020, 2:34 am)scanialover So just what is the point of timetables? Let's just let the drivers go and pick their bus up and do what they like. The attitude demonstrated here does typify in some way just how people accept the standard of bus travel.
(14 Feb 2020, 7:00 am)tvd Keeping to time all the time and having no bunching of frequent services like the 63 is pretty impossible, to be fair to Arriva.
There's the level crossing in Redcar that can hold them up both way, as well as all the traffic lights and usual congestion on the roads. And we've all seen buses running late only to get to a stop only then for the boarding passengers to ask questions, look all over for their money or pass, and basically delay things even more.
So the first bus gets delayed and end up picking up passengers who intended boarding the next bus - which in turn is quieter and can keep to its time easier, ending up behind the earlier one.
(14 Feb 2020, 7:10 am)scanialover The inevitability of bus travel these days and despite my grumble about service 63 being from the area I know just how difficult it is to maintain time. I'd thought of things like turning late running services short and some sort of radio control management but this is Middlesbrough not London and it's just best, a fact, we stick with what we've got.
(14 Feb 2020, 2:34 am)scanialover So just what is the point of timetables? Let's just let the drivers go and pick their bus up and do what they like. The attitude demonstrated here does typify in some way just how people accept the standard of bus travel.
(14 Feb 2020, 7:00 am)tvd Keeping to time all the time and having no bunching of frequent services like the 63 is pretty impossible, to be fair to Arriva.
There's the level crossing in Redcar that can hold them up both way, as well as all the traffic lights and usual congestion on the roads. And we've all seen buses running late only to get to a stop only then for the boarding passengers to ask questions, look all over for their money or pass, and basically delay things even more.
So the first bus gets delayed and end up picking up passengers who intended boarding the next bus - which in turn is quieter and can keep to its time easier, ending up behind the earlier one.
(14 Feb 2020, 7:10 am)scanialover The inevitability of bus travel these days and despite my grumble about service 63 being from the area I know just how difficult it is to maintain time. I'd thought of things like turning late running services short and some sort of radio control management but this is Middlesbrough not London and it's just best, a fact, we stick with what we've got.
