Does anyone know why 6178/9 are on there way to Houghton from Seaham?
(17 Jun 2022, 4:23 pm)Unber43 wrote [ -> ]Does anyone know why 6178/9 are on there way to Houghton from Seaham?
Both tracking as "999 to Use" alongside 6086 on Bus Times is tracking at Durham Cricket Ground, Durham are playing Yorkshire Vikings in the T20 Blast this evening so there will be a P&R in place.
(17 Jun 2022, 4:23 pm)Unber43 wrote [ -> ]Does anyone know why 6178/9 are on there way to Houghton from Seaham?
Saw two earlier on when I was heading south. I joined the A19 at Doxford and they were sandwiched either side of an X10 decker.
(17 Jun 2022, 4:46 pm)Andreos1 wrote [ -> ]Saw two earlier on when I was heading south. I joined the A19 at Doxford and they were sandwiched either side of an X10 decker.
A19 Double Decker Bus Drag Racing, should've formed part of Bus Factor.
(17 Jun 2022, 4:52 pm)Malarkey wrote [ -> ]A19 Double Decker Bus Drag Racing, should've formed part of Bus Factor.
The ex-Lothian decker seemed to have more pull than 6086 did!
7132 is currently making it way to presumably Edinburgh, so when the coach gets there does the driver stay over night in a hotel or comes back down on the same night?
If it's on national express it used to depart 2200 hrs on return journey with a crew change at Washington services
I take some of these rail covers done by GNE arent previously planned so do they just get driver volunteers or is there someone on standby for any hires GNE might get, for these rail replacements they must have a satnav right as I wouldn't expect drivers to known Newcastle - Edinbrough route, as they come from Depford a lot of the time where National Express don't operate.
(18 Nov 2022, 8:26 pm)Unber43 wrote [ -> ]7132 is currently making it way to presumably Edinburgh, so when the coach gets there does the driver stay over night in a hotel or comes back down on the same night?
It was an emergency rail replacement:
https://twitter.com/nemartijn/status/159...67431?s=46&t=kDZsWRWoyDfbuIWuMW3rvA
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
(18 Nov 2022, 10:32 pm)nova347 wrote [ -> ]I take some of these rail covers done by GNE arent previously planned so do they just get driver volunteers or is there someone on standby for any hires GNE might get, for these rail replacements they must have a satnav right as I wouldn't expect drivers to known Newcastle - Edinbrough route, as they come from Depford a lot of the time where National Express don't operate.
No, GNE isn’t actively bidding for any pre-planned rail replacement work given the driver shortage. This was an emergency replacement for Lumo.
Whilst the coach came from Deptford, the driver did not! I can drive from Newcastle to Edinburgh without a sat nav, no problem.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
(19 Nov 2022, 1:00 am)Dan wrote [ -> ]No, GNE isn’t actively bidding for any pre-planned rail replacement work given the driver shortage. This was an emergency replacement for Lumo.
Whilst the coach came from Deptford, the driver did not! I can drive from Newcastle to Edinburgh without a sat nav, no problem.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Was that your sexy face i saw in MG's tweet
(19 Nov 2022, 1:00 am)Dan wrote [ -> ]No, GNE isn’t actively bidding for any pre-planned rail replacement work given the driver shortage. This was an emergency replacement for Lumo.
Whilst the coach came from Deptford, the driver did not! I can drive from Newcastle to Edinburgh without a sat nav, no problem.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
So is this a manager cherry picking driving jobs?
I wonder if it was offered to the drivers on the shop floor? One of those could have done it and a manager could have covered his shift.
(21 Nov 2022, 12:44 am)Bazza wrote [ -> ]So is this a manager cherry picking driving jobs?
I wonder if it was offered to the drivers on the shop floor? One of those could have done it and a manager could have covered his shift.
Don’t be so ridiculous.
You do realise this was an emergency situation and thousands of people were waiting at Central Station (and had been for some time)?
Yes, of course it could have been offered to a driver at Deptford in scope - providing they knew the way and had been tri-axle trained (not many have been), but all that would have taken time and it was time that, quite frankly, neither GNE nor FTS had.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
(19 Nov 2022, 1:00 am)Dan wrote [ -> ]No, GNE isn’t actively bidding for any pre-planned rail replacement work given the driver shortage. This was an emergency replacement for Lumo.
Whilst the coach came from Deptford, the driver did not! I can drive from Newcastle to Edinburgh without a sat nav, no problem.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
So where did the driver come from? One of the other depots or did you drive it?
(21 Nov 2022, 6:04 am)Dan wrote [ -> ]Don’t be so ridiculous.
You do realise this was an emergency situation and thousands of people were waiting at Central Station (and had been for some time)?
Yes, of course it could have been offered to a driver at Deptford in scope - providing they knew the way and had been tri-axle trained (not many have been), but all that would have taken time and it was time that, quite frankly, neither GNE nor FTS had.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Not ridiculous at all
I won’t be the only person who was thinking it
I wonder how drivers at Deptford (if they knew about it - and why did it have to be a Deptford driver?) would have viewed it?
Your explanation is perfectly valid, however it can all be about perception, that perception may have been wrong with the information at hand, but certainly not ridiculous.
So bloody what if Dan offered to do the job to save time. Why waste time ringing around say 10 other people when the first person asked has agreed to do it.
Sure the company might have had a huge finanical incentive to do the job, why should they pass up the prospect of a decent guranteed payday, giving Dan might have finished in his office duties, recieved a message requesting a coach, and thought sod it, I've got nothing on tonight, I just do it anyway and save farcing around getting staff in the right place. He also knew how to get there without having to use SatNav etc.
He did a good deed and people are having a go at him for doing it, it hasn't gone unnoticed by me and other sensible people that don't have an axe to grind that he has been putting in plenty of driving hours on local work over the last few weeks including fireworks shuttles, metro replacement and normal services. He is going beyond his call of duty, he could easily just sit in a office all day and then go home at 5pm, but no he is helping out where he can.
(21 Nov 2022, 12:44 am)Bazza wrote [ -> ]So is this a manager cherry picking driving jobs?
I wonder if it was offered to the drivers on the shop floor? One of those could have done it and a manager could have covered his shift.
Not sure why you'd ever take a driver from their shift to cover private hire work, if you don't already have someone to cover that shift? Managers aren't employed as drivers in most of the large operators, so I'd imagine it's not as simple as requesting they cover some service work to relieve someone (who is employed as a driver) to do private hire work.
On the other point, it's fair enough in normal circumstances if the work is known about in advance and in time to offer it out to the depots as overtime. I'd imagine the hires arranged at the back end of last week were due to panic, as well as it being an emergency. At the point I was at Central on Friday, one queue for rail replacement coaches was all the way down to the Orchard Street tunnel, and the other was right back into the car park within the station. Clearly a lot of people to move in very little time.
Even with that, it's still not normal circumstances. Dozens of trips are still being cancelled on a daily basis as far as service work goes, and although it's a lot better than it has been, it's still not good enough. If there's overtime on offer to driving staff, then the priority for that should be service work. Private hires should only be running if they aren't impacting normal service, such as seeking a non-driving staff volunteer to do it.
Seen a Voyager Omnidekka heading down Westgate road today in the City Centre on Private hire.
Are these exempt from CAZ/or Euro 6?
The Voyager Omnidekkas have an updated engine compared to other versions due to them being N270UDs rather then N94UDs, though I'm not sure if the one that's receiving the engine from the ex DFDS one will still be the same emission level, as it's an older engine maybe.
Nontheless Percy Main seem content with using the Long Omnidekkas on the DFDS service still, I did note they have extra grills around the exhaust system, so probably have modifications at some point to boost the Euro rating, whether it was boosted enough is another matter.