North East Buses Update: 24/07/13
North East Buses Update: 24/07/13
Last month, North East Buses asked its members: Would you like to see the Go North East thread contented? After further discussion on how our original ideas could be improved, 75% of the community agreed that they would like to see Go North East, Arriva North East and Stagecoach North East’s threads contented. A mere 25% said that things should stay as they are at present. With the majority of the feedback being positive, we decided that we would go ahead with some of our original proposals and also elaborate on some of our ideas too to suit the wants and needs of the community. After many hours of hard work splitting and categorising the posts in our operator threads, it was decided that we didn’t quite like our proposals as much as we did when we first discussed them in June, and that even if we did still like the proposals, they were simply going to take far too long to accomplish. We realised that changes still needed to be performed, but the question was ‘what changes?’
As part of the above changes, a personal project of my own was to design fleet lists for each main North East bus operator (GNE, ANE and SNE). These fleet lists would be created in a database format, where those using the fleet lists could search in a specific field for what they would like to view – by fleet number, registration, chassis/bodywork, livery, depot etc.
We believe that these fleet lists will be an asset to North East Buses, but adding these fleet lists to the site was simply not good enough – we needed more.
An already existent item on the market at present is fleet news. We appreciate that there are websites at present which offer fleet news for the main bus operators within the North East as well as independent operators too, but our ideas were thriving at the prospect of adding this feature to the site too. We all thought that we could improve on how fleet news is currently distributed on these websites, and we could link it to our fleet lists and to our already established forum too. In April, it became apparent to us that some of the posts on our forums often insinuate things that may not be true. As North East Buses was the first enthusiast community to receive a link inserted on Go North East’s “Enthusiast Area” section of their website, we realised that if customers were to stumble upon this page and subsequently view our discussions on the forums, we would not like to have our members’ opinions shown as fact if said opinions are representing Go North East or any other party in a bad light. Members and non-members alike have also expressed that they would prefer it if opinion and speculation could be separated from fact. We definitely feel that the addition of fleet news would resolve any issues that the community have at the moment – the information given on fleet news (containing repaints, loans, transfers, addition and losses from the fleet etc) would be fact, while the posts in our discussion threads is merely discussion. It can include opinion and speculation, and the information given in these threads (should it concern future plans) should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Finally, posts in our main operator threads have been split into parts of 200 posts each. These changes ease pressure on our site’s database and it also allows the reader to digest what is being said a little easier. The parted threads are then locked, but discussion can still be carried through into the next thread if/when necessary.
I am therefore delighted to inform you all of our (well anticipated and much awaited) changes, rolling into effect from today.
Our fleet lists: Go North East, Stagecoach North East and Arriva North East.
And of course, our fleet news sections! Dedicated persons (fleet news reporters) are allowed to post in these sections, and should see bi-weekly updates from these persons. Each thread is relative to the bus operator’s sub-forum it is under.
As part of the changes, we have also divided our service suggestions by bus operator. There was some discussion of Nexus service suggestions while also discussing Go North East, and this has been the case with a few other posts too – in this case, they have been put into the thread where they were best suited where the original discussion derived from.
Some of these updates are still being carried out as I write this post and will continue to be carried out through today. No posts will be lost in this process, so keep on posting as normal! You’ll notice a new link to our fleet list homepage will be inserted on the navigation bar once the page is complete. Until then, you will have to navigate to the fleet lists by the direct links given above.
What’s planned for the future? Starting off with Go North East, we hope to allow members to click on a vehicle within the fleet list and see a photo of it hosted on Flickr. This will work alongside my personal Go North East: “Buses By Brand” collection, so frequently discussed by myself on the Go North East forums. If this proves to succeed, it will be gradually rolled out onto the Stagecoach North East and Arriva North East fleet lists also. The coding is in place, we’re just waiting for all the photographs to be uploaded! Again, this will prove to be a unique feature brought to bus enthusiasts in the North East, and we hope it will be a well-used feature which is appreciated by all.
If in time the resources are available, we also hope to trial fleet news for independent operators within the North East too. If these resources are not available, normal discussion can continue on our dedicated threads for these operators.
Your feedback is also greatly appreciated. Do you like the updates? How could they be improved? What would you have done differently if you were performing these updates? Have you got any other suggestions?
Post below!
Many thanks.
(24 Jul 2013, 11:38 am)Michael I love the fleet list idea, it looks great
where will this be posted?
(24 Jul 2013, 11:38 am)Michael I love the fleet list idea, it looks great
where will this be posted?
). I can't think of any other site that provides that facility from one single source?Love the fleet databases. Do you intend on keeping historical info in the databases? May be worth having a status field, e.g. 'In Service', 'Withdrawn', 'Sold'. Maybe a traffic light (RAG) system to save column width. It could prove to be handy tracking demonstrators and such.
Another thought I had would be the ability to view a record individually by selecting it from the results list. The individual record could include what Daniel has already said about a photo of the bus from flickr, but also could include vehicle history? e.g. "Aug 13 - Transferred from Deptford to Washington", or "Sep 13 - Rebranded from Metrolink to Tyne Tees Xpress" (). I can't think of any other site that provides that facility from one single source?
Also, although not strictly buses, would you consider creating a similar database for the Tyne and Wear Metro? If it had all the features above, again, I believe this would be the only website to have all that information in a single source - after all, it's supposed to be an integral part of an integrated network.
(24 Jul 2013, 12:05 pm)aureolin Love the fleet databases. Do you intend on keeping historical info in the databases? May be worth having a status field, e.g. 'In Service', 'Withdrawn', 'Sold'. Maybe a traffic light (RAG) system to save column width. It could prove to be handy tracking demonstrators and such.
Another thought I had would be the ability to view a record individually by selecting it from the results list. The individual record could include what Daniel has already said about a photo of the bus from flickr, but also could include vehicle history? e.g. "Aug 13 - Transferred from Deptford to Washington", or "Sep 13 - Rebranded from Metrolink to Tyne Tees Xpress" (
Also, although not strictly buses, would you consider creating a similar database for the Tyne and Wear Metro? If it had all the features above, again, I believe this would be the only website to have all that information in a single source - after all, it's supposed to be an integral part of an integrated network.
(24 Jul 2013, 12:05 pm)aureolin Love the fleet databases. Do you intend on keeping historical info in the databases? May be worth having a status field, e.g. 'In Service', 'Withdrawn', 'Sold'. Maybe a traffic light (RAG) system to save column width. It could prove to be handy tracking demonstrators and such.
Another thought I had would be the ability to view a record individually by selecting it from the results list. The individual record could include what Daniel has already said about a photo of the bus from flickr, but also could include vehicle history? e.g. "Aug 13 - Transferred from Deptford to Washington", or "Sep 13 - Rebranded from Metrolink to Tyne Tees Xpress" (
Also, although not strictly buses, would you consider creating a similar database for the Tyne and Wear Metro? If it had all the features above, again, I believe this would be the only website to have all that information in a single source - after all, it's supposed to be an integral part of an integrated network.
You'll now notice a "Fleet Lists" navigation bar link - you can click this to view the homepage for the fleet lists.
A link has also been provided on the homepage. This replaces "Other Forms of Transport". Whether that link has a comeback eventually or not, I do not know.
We're also looking into the fleet list archive. Nothing concrete, but we think it's a brilliant idea.
Love the changes regarding GNE/Stagecoach/Arriva having there own personal thread I think I may mentioned when discussing possible changes, also the fleet lists are excellent and I will certainly use this facility to update my own personal GNE Fleet List which is in a similar layout to the GNE one on here.
I shall attach mine for everyone to have a look at. Note I have Highlighted what Buses I have Photographed also so I don't get confused by what I still need to Catch, My Fleet List is also set out in Depot Order instead to make it easier to view and find a certain bus/brand etc, which is something you might want to look into despite the search bar facility.
[attachment=4487]
(24 Jul 2013, 2:54 pm)Michael I have an question for the fleet lists.
Can you add the year the buses and other vehicles was bought please?
(24 Jul 2013, 2:54 pm)Michael I have an question for the fleet lists.
Can you add the year the buses and other vehicles was bought please?
(24 Jul 2013, 2:56 pm)Daniel(24 Jul 2013, 2:54 pm)Michael I have an question for the fleet lists.
Can you add the year the buses and other vehicles was bought please?
If it's done, it'll have to be done on the vehicle info/archive suggestion aureolin put forward. Really can't be done on the fleetlist itself because there's so little room. Any more fields and it'll be going on a double row rather than single (depending on screen size/resolution, you could already be on a double row).
EDIT: Scrap that. May be able to do it in a future update. Freed up a little bit of room.
(24 Jul 2013, 2:56 pm)Daniel(24 Jul 2013, 2:54 pm)Michael I have an question for the fleet lists.
Can you add the year the buses and other vehicles was bought please?
If it's done, it'll have to be done on the vehicle info/archive suggestion aureolin put forward. Really can't be done on the fleetlist itself because there's so little room. Any more fields and it'll be going on a double row rather than single (depending on screen size/resolution, you could already be on a double row).
EDIT: Scrap that. May be able to do it in a future update. Freed up a little bit of room.
As it was requested earlier today, the year of manufacture has been added to our Go North East fleetlist. The coding is in place for Stagecoach North East and Arriva North East for this additional field to be added - it's just waiting for me to get to adding all of the dates (typing four digit numbers over and over is extremely tedious, so can take a while!)
ANE/SNE are likely to be completed tonight also, but both Liam and I are having a little break for now. I imagine Liam's task of coding is just as boring as my task of inserting the data!
Stagecoach North East fleet list finished - complete with ancillary vehicles. I can't get my hands on an updated list of ancillary vehicles for GNE (given the recent addition of quite a few!) so will take time - I need to find them all for the registrations first.
I'll start on Arriva now while watching Top Gear on iPlayer, but not guaranteeing it will get finished. I understand I have a few errors to correct/updates to perform too! :p
Arriva North East done too - minus ancillary vehicles too (if anyone can get a list for me, do PM me).
Those vehicles ready for disposal or those vehicles that are depot reserves have not had that additional note added yet, but will do soon. I've had enough for now!
The errors brought to my attention have all been corrected.
(24 Jul 2013, 7:51 pm)gtomlinson Would it be prudent to make the main GNE page Go North East Discussion just to break it up slightly?
(24 Jul 2013, 7:51 pm)gtomlinson Would it be prudent to make the main GNE page Go North East Discussion just to break it up slightly?
Metro fleetlist now complete.
http://northeastbuses.co.uk/metro.php
The "Name" field will be updated accordingly soon with all appropriate names (only think there are a few names but seemed worth adding it as a field nevertheless). Detailed descriptions of Metrocar History will also be added soon, with photographs starting to appear also.
'New Fleet Livery' represents a refurbished train. You will notice that most of these Metrocars have a date of when they were refurbished on the Metrocar history itself. Again, more details will be added about their past at a later date.
'Red Metro' represents the old fleet livery, in the red variation. The same thing applies for 'Green Metro' and 'Blue Metro'.
Any problems, reply to this thread or PM me.
