North East Buses

Nothing by Go North East or Arriva

(30 Aug 2021, 9:58 am)Train8261 wrote [ -> ]Good turn out of buses. Weather is of and on with the rain but all in all good turn out

Your last count of buses was 12, is this really classed as a good turnout or do the people attending these events really have such low expectations?

(30 Aug 2021, 10:26 am)omnicity4659 wrote [ -> ]Your last count of buses was 12, is this really classed as a good turnout or do the people attending these events really have such low expectations?

There could be only one bus and there would be some people who would argue that the day had been a success.

I believe the public are still anxious about covid.

(30 Aug 2021, 10:56 am)idiot wrote [ -> ]I believe the public are still anxious about covid.

For the past five years??

Covid certainly didn't seem to be of any concern to the passengers boarding the Routemaster which has just left on the heritage service.

SLOW BUS!! DANGEROUS!!!

Way more than 12 buses.

25 on my count. One is just about to pull in.

Still not as much of a turnout as previous years. I stayed about 2 hours in total. That includes a ride on the heritage trip and a walk to Morrisons to get some lunch.

Charles

(30 Aug 2021, 10:26 am)omnicity4659 wrote [ -> ]Your last count of buses was 12, is this really classed as a good turnout or do the people attending these events really have such low expectations?

26, good enough? or just keep trashing the event on here.

A very good rally, with some excellent buses, large turnout of public, who spent and donated. considering Covid is still the primary concern of any sensible people the event was well supported and the detractors gladly missed on the day.

Seaburn Vintage Rally 28th August 2021 | Flickr

Decided to pop along today, and despite earlier suggestions that the £3 entry fee is problematic for 'enthusiasts', there was a good amount of people there. Seaburn does usually tend to attract a bit of a crowd for the cars alone, so it almost ends up being two rallies in one.

From my observations, out of the 12 advertised buses on the NEBPT website, only 7 made it to Seaburn. That's always going to happen to a degree, as it could well be something unforeseen happening on the day or on the lead up to today. That being said though, I counted 26 buses in total. So 19 that weren't listed on the website. That feels a bit of an own goal to me. If you list details of attendees on a website, the purpose is usually to encourage more people to attend based on what's there.

I thought the rally itself was average. It was good to see some fantastic buses in attendance, but I feel that the organisation still lets the event down. There is very little information about the event, and it largely works on the assumption that 'it's the same time every year, so you should know', but in the digital age we live in: communication is key. 

I've attended other rallies and running days around the country, and you certainly have more of a feel of knowing what is going on, both on the run up and after the event. Many producing event programmes, giving timetables for the shuttle bus service and so on. A programme priced at say £5 is both a good fundraiser, and a good way of informing visitors about the event.

The shuttle bus looked to be really popular from what I noticed, but I wonder if some of it was used as an opportunity to get out of the drizzle. Sadly the hourly timetable meant that people were left behind, including from a full load on the ex-Northern Routemaster. To their credit, one of the marshals had said he would try and get two buses at the same time for the following run, which I believe happened.

A notable absentee was Go North East. Whilst I think this one has always been supported by Stagecoach, you'd still generally get a good turn out from GNE. There was nothing today, only a single Enviro from Stagecoach and nothing from any of the other local companies. I appreciate that commercial work takes priority over rallies etc (although I'm speculating that may be the reason), I think certainly younger enthusiasts and children of the age they're with their parents, would be far more attached to modern buses. That's not a knock on preservationists, before more wild conclusions are jumped to, but simply an observation of that is what they're growing up with.

I hope people continue attending and supporting these events, but also think its important that constructive criticism is heard. Otherwise how to things improve?

(30 Aug 2021, 7:17 pm)Adrian wrote [ -> ]Decided to pop along today, and despite earlier suggestions that the £3 entry fee is problematic for 'enthusiasts', there was a good amount of people there. Seaburn does usually tend to attract a bit of a crowd for the cars alone, so it almost ends up being two rallies in one.

From my observations, out of the 12 advertised buses on the NEBPT website, only 7 made it to Seaburn. That's always going to happen to a degree, as it could well be something unforeseen happening on the day or on the lead up to today. That being said though, I counted 26 buses in total. So 19 that weren't listed on the website. That feels a bit of an own goal to me. If you list details of attendees on a website, the purpose is usually to encourage more people to attend based on what's there.

I thought the rally itself was average. It was good to see some fantastic buses in attendance, but I feel that the organisation still lets the event down. There is very little information about the event, and it largely works on the assumption that 'it's the same time every year, so you should know', but in the digital age we live in: communication is key. 

I've attended other rallies and running days around the country, and you certainly have more of a feel of knowing what is going on, both on the run up and after the event. Many producing event programmes, giving timetables for the shuttle bus service and so on. A programme priced at say £5 is both a good fundraiser, and a good way of informing visitors about the event.

The shuttle bus looked to be really popular from what I noticed, but I wonder if some of it was used as an opportunity to get out of the drizzle. Sadly the hourly timetable meant that people were left behind, including from a full load on the ex-Northern Routemaster. To their credit, one of the marshals had said he would try and get two buses at the same time for the following run, which I believe happened.

A notable absentee was Go North East. Whilst I think this one has always been supported by Stagecoach, you'd still generally get a good turn out from GNE. There was nothing today, only a single Enviro from Stagecoach and nothing from any of the other local companies. I appreciate that commercial work takes priority over rallies etc (although I'm speculating that may be the reason), I think certainly younger enthusiasts and children of the age they're with their parents, would be far more attached to modern buses. That's not a knock on preservationists, before more wild conclusions are jumped to, but simply an observation of that is what they're growing up with.

I hope people continue attending and supporting these events, but also think its important that constructive criticism is heard. Otherwise how to things improve?

2099 suffered a fault and had to be taken out of service, the rapid actions brought not one but two buses out to cover and trips continued beyond the usual cut off.

(30 Aug 2021, 7:17 pm)Adrian wrote [ -> ]Decided to pop along today, and despite earlier suggestions that the £3 entry fee is problematic for 'enthusiasts', there was a good amount of people there. Seaburn does usually tend to attract a bit of a crowd for the cars alone, so it almost ends up being two rallies in one.

From my observations, out of the 12 advertised buses on the NEBPT website, only 7 made it to Seaburn. That's always going to happen to a degree, as it could well be something unforeseen happening on the day or on the lead up to today. That being said though, I counted 26 buses in total. So 19 that weren't listed on the website. That feels a bit of an own goal to me. If you list details of attendees on a website, the purpose is usually to encourage more people to attend based on what's there.

I thought the rally itself was average. It was good to see some fantastic buses in attendance, but I feel that the organisation still lets the event down. There is very little information about the event, and it largely works on the assumption that 'it's the same time every year, so you should know', but in the digital age we live in: communication is key. 

I've attended other rallies and running days around the country, and you certainly have more of a feel of knowing what is going on, both on the run up and after the event. Many producing event programmes, giving timetables for the shuttle bus service and so on. A programme priced at say £5 is both a good fundraiser, and a good way of informing visitors about the event.

The shuttle bus looked to be really popular from what I noticed, but I wonder if some of it was used as an opportunity to get out of the drizzle. Sadly the hourly timetable meant that people were left behind, including from a full load on the ex-Northern Routemaster. To their credit, one of the marshals had said he would try and get two buses at the same time for the following run, which I believe happened.

A notable absentee was Go North East. Whilst I think this one has always been supported by Stagecoach, you'd still generally get a good turn out from GNE. There was nothing today, only a single Enviro from Stagecoach and nothing from any of the other local companies. I appreciate that commercial work takes priority over rallies etc (although I'm speculating that may be the reason), I think certainly younger enthusiasts and children of the age they're with their parents, would be far more attached to modern buses. That's not a knock on preservationists, before more wild conclusions are jumped to, but simply an observation of that is what they're growing up with.

I hope people continue attending and supporting these events, but also think its important that constructive criticism is heard. Otherwise how to things improve?

I can definitely see that to some degree. I'm 24 and have absolutely no interest in older buses. I'd say the oldest bus I'm somewhat interested in is an L94 (or equivalent), and that's probably because they were the fancy 'new' buses when I was being forced to get the bus as a child. But even then, I'd probably consider them an old bus and would probably avoid them!

I think the thing that puts me off older buses, and I've said this before, is the fact that they end up getting used on scholars services, don't get looked after, don't seem to be reliable and have terrible seats!

(30 Aug 2021, 7:53 pm)streetdeckfan wrote [ -> ]I can definitely see that to some degree. I'm 24 and have absolutely no interest in older buses. I'd say the oldest bus I'm somewhat interested in is an L94 (or equivalent), and that's probably because they were the fancy 'new' buses when I was being forced to get the bus as a child. But even then, I'd probably consider them an old bus and would probably avoid them!

I think the thing that puts me off older buses, and I've said this before, is the fact that they end up getting used on scholars services, don't get looked after, don't seem to be reliable and have terrible seats!

You see, I actually prefer the old-style bench seating you have on older buses (though probably not L94s to be fair). A lot more legroom and easier to stretch out if no-one else is sat there.

(30 Aug 2021, 7:53 pm)streetdeckfan wrote [ -> ]I can definitely see that to some degree. I'm 24 and have absolutely no interest in older buses. I'd say the oldest bus I'm somewhat interested in is an L94 (or equivalent), and that's probably because they were the fancy 'new' buses when I was being forced to get the bus as a child. But even then, I'd probably consider them an old bus and would probably avoid them!

I think the thing that puts me off older buses, and I've said this before, is the fact that they end up getting used on scholars services, don't get looked after, don't seem to be reliable and have terrible seats!

I think the seats thing will always be subjective. I much prefer the bench-style seats that are in most Olympians, Nationals and so on that ran up here, as oppose to the ironing board style Civic V3s in most GNE stuff. Although I am a fan of the seats they've fitted to their Enviros and find them really comfortable. 

Nothing comes close to the dual purpose seats that were fitted to some batches, such as the Olympians that were used on Expresslink. They're the closest to a 5* match you'd get from a bus/coach IMO.

(30 Aug 2021, 8:01 pm)Adrian wrote [ -> ]I think the seats thing will always be subjective. I much prefer the bench-style seats that are in most Olympians, Nationals and so on that ran up here, as oppose to the ironing board style Civic V3s in most GNE stuff. Although I am a fan of the seats they've fitted to their Enviros and find them really comfortable. 

Nothing comes close to the dual purpose seats that were fitted to some batches, such as the Olympians that were used on Expresslink. They're the closest to a 5* match you'd get from a bus/coach IMO.

I'm the opposite, I could sit for hours on the Civic V3 seats, but 20 minutes on one of the Enviros and I am in literal pain!

As a side note, Routemaster 2099 is on long term loan to GNE from the NEBPT. It performed quite nicely all weekend in Burton.

Though I do admit I was suprised to see 6101 parked up in Percy Main depot when I drove past this afternoon whilst on my lunch break.

(30 Aug 2021, 6:18 pm)54APhotography wrote [ -> ]26, good enough? or just keep trashing the event on here.

Seeing as I live 35 miles away, I wasn't going to spaff money on fuel or Metro tickets to see if there's 12 or 26 buses there. As it's been mentioned earlier, promoting these events is vital for them to survive otherwise only the die-hard enthusiast who doesn't care about what turns up will attend - no way to run an event.

Replies to my comment on here were the first indication that there were more vehicles, followed by an owner of a bus messaging me saying he was en-route to the event. Too late for me to start my journey from up here!

Probably didn't help that GNE nor Arriva wasn't there and stagecoach brought 1

(31 Aug 2021, 11:49 am)Train8261 wrote [ -> ]Probably didn't help that GNE nor Arriva wasn't there and stagecoach brought 1

Whether any of the big three attend is something I'm largely ambivalent towards because I'm there for the persevered vehicles. However, as Adrian has already pointed out, newer buses might attract younger audience, which in turn, boosts the coffers (and possibly donations) for the NEBPT and preservationists.