North East Buses

I know it's generally something that me and others moan about timetables with uneven patterns but it's good to see that the new £4.5m AI system that Firstbus (https://news.firstbus.co.uk/news/first-b...s-industry) is using is bringing out timetables which are all clean and efficent for customers... oh wait

What a mess the new timetables are in Stoke, with completely bizarre timetables, as an understatement

This is the sort of nonsense which is being produced - https://www.firstbus.co.uk/potteries/plan-journey/timetables?service=103&day=mf&date=2024-09-01 and even worse according to RailUK who have cyphered the timetables, there's buses sitting around 20 minutes here and there doing absolutely nothing so there's no reason why they're like this.

For the record this is what's being replaced - https://bustimes.org/services/3-hanley-t...ager-crewe, nice and clean.

Absolutely crazy, I guess the management there don't have a braincell between them to intervene and not notice it's a complete mess. It's like giving a kid with a computer who doesn't know what he's doing asking ChatGDP to create a timetable and literally use the thing without actually looking at it. They've literally produced a service which is worse than currently and increased the PVR in the process, what an own goal.

That makes the time.when the times for the 93/94 moved by 10 minutes per hour on a Saturday seem quite logical.

I can see what it's done. Frequency seems to be based on expected patronage at particular times of day but, as you said, fails to take availability and usage of drivers and vehicles into account.

(19 Aug 2024, 10:04 pm)BusLoverMum wrote [ -> ]That makes the time.when the times for the 93/94 moved by 10 minutes per hour on a Saturday seem quite logical.

I can see what it's done. Frequency seems to be based on expected patronage at particular times of day but, as you said, fails to take availability and usage of drivers and vehicles into account.

To be fair, I don't think it actually does take account of patronage. Believe it's all purely based on timekeeping but it's just gone completely mad. There's problems all over the new York and Leeds timetables are the same, and in some cases there's just random hourly gaps in the middle of the day.

https://www.railforums.co.uk/forums/buses-coaches.166/ - There's a few threads in here, basically all the First ones and basically everyone has come to a conclusion that it's just bonkers and doesn't make sense in any form. Just AI going AWOL and no-one using common sense and thinking hmm maybe there's something wrong.

I don't think there is harm in "asking" AI to generate run times based on historical data, as that could be a genuine time saver.

But, as we've seen elsewhere, without what appears to be any human intervention , the AI timetables just look daft, especially on roadside publicity

(23 Aug 2024, 2:06 pm)DeltaMan wrote [ -> ]I don't think there is harm in "asking" AI to generate run times based on historical data, as that could be a genuine time saver.

But, as we've seen elsewhere, without what appears to be any human intervention , the AI timetables just look daft, especially on roadside publicity

The reliance on AI in this case, is crazy. How can a human being not know when the peak traffic flows are and why are they spending silly amounts of money to design a timetable? 

However, the lack of foresight in adapting the route or extending it is beyond bonkers.
A bus won't make any money standing still, so at least make use of it somehow, rather than let it sit for x amount of time.

(23 Aug 2024, 2:06 pm)DeltaMan wrote [ -> ]I don't think there is harm in "asking" AI to generate run times based on historical data, as that could be a genuine time saver.

But, as we've seen elsewhere, without what appears to be any human intervention , the AI timetables just look daft, especially on roadside publicity

Aye can't disagree, don't they all do that anyway like working out traffic patterns etc?

Btw it seems Arriva won't be bringing them in anytime soon as their Arriva Yorkshire changes have a nice little dig hidden towards First in them and they're competing against them as a result. 

https://www.arrivabus.co.uk/latest-news/...ember-2024 (Look at the 254/255 changes)