(08 Mar 2018, 6:20 pm)Andreos1 wrote 8321 looking forlorn at Woodstone Village a few moments ago.
Passengers transferred to another branded vehicle. Unsure if it was the 17.45 (approx) that failed and a replacement was sent or the 17.15 (approx) that's waited half an hour for the next scheduled bus to appear.

In deep (?!) thought about the Merc's at the moment. Keep your eyes peeled for another thought provoking post!
Two in a week? First questioning the logic of running off the 20A early from Shields and now a potential post about the Merc's!

(08 Mar 2018, 6:20 pm)Andreos1 wrote 8321 looking forlorn at Woodstone Village a few moments ago.
Passengers transferred to another branded vehicle. Unsure if it was the 17.45 (approx) that failed and a replacement was sent or the 17.15 (approx) that's waited half an hour for the next scheduled bus to appear.

In deep (?!) thought about the Merc's at the moment. Keep your eyes peeled for another thought provoking post!
Two in a week? First questioning the logic of running off the 20A early from Shields and now a potential post about the Merc's!

(08 Mar 2018, 7:51 pm)Andreos1 wrote GNE's Mercedes Citaro's.

Appreciate we won't see them on an open forum like this, but to compare and contrast further, I would love to see how numbers have improved/declined once cascades started and Merc's appeared on the various other Riverside, Deptford and then Stanley services.
To see cheaper, lighweight vehicles appear on the Stanley and Deptford routes would indicate to me that the 'Merc factor' has worn off. 
However, I think that would be too easy an assumption to make. Particularly in the fuel saving, BSOG obsessed, penny pinching era we are living in now.

(08 Mar 2018, 9:32 pm)mb134 wrote When they first appeared on the scene, and bear in mind I was only about 10 at the time so my memory is a bit hazy, I seem to recall there was a big push into the fact that these were Mercedes, both for driver recruitment and service advertisement. I don't remember any similar publicity when they were cascaded. 

Mercedes to the general public screams premium quality and reliability.

For example, at the time, Arriva Northumbria were still operating a strong fleet of Scania single decks. We know that they were ridiculously good vehicles, yet if you offered the 'average' customer a ride home in a Merc or a Scania, there'd only ever be one winner.

(08 Mar 2018, 9:32 pm)mb134 wrote When they first appeared on the scene, and bear in mind I was only about 10 at the time so my memory is a bit hazy, I seem to recall there was a big push into the fact that these were Mercedes, both for driver recruitment and service advertisement. I don't remember any similar publicity when they were cascaded. 

Mercedes to the general public screams premium quality and reliability.

For example, at the time, Arriva Northumbria were still operating a strong fleet of Scania single decks. We know that they were ridiculously good vehicles, yet if you offered the 'average' customer a ride home in a Merc or a Scania, there'd only ever be one winner.

(31 Jan 2018, 7:27 pm)Citaro5326 wrote looks good but answer this, all the ticket machines are contactless and how is everyone meant to know without having the stickers like 5292 , how's people suppose to know ? would help if they had stickers alot better

(09 Mar 2018, 6:32 am)Dan wrote A delayed response, but Go North East are clearly looking at ways in which to promote contactless payments.

As well as the promotional livery carried by 6332, there is a cycle of regular posts on Social Media advertising the ability to pay by contactless, there tends to be leaflets on buses with an advert for contactless payments on the back, any Next Stop Announcement TFT monitors updated going forward will have a cycle of advertising slides (one of which is for contactless), the front of the Angel and Castles Express buses have had wording added near the destination display to promote contactless, and the latest form of making customers aware is by a new vinyl added to the first nearside window close by the doors, which aims to make customers aware of the alternative payment method as they board (the idea is that the customer would stop hunting for change, which would potentially delay the journey, and instead pay by card).

The new vinyl is depicted below.

Go North East: 6153 / LJ62KLC by Daniel Graham, on Flickr

(09 Mar 2018, 7:08 am)Michael wrote How many B9's are here now?

(09 Mar 2018, 7:31 am)NewcastleOne wrote I counted 5 6149,6153,6157,6160&6161 all on Routes apart from 6153

(09 Mar 2018, 8:03 am)Michael wrote Thanks, wasn't sure! x

(09 Mar 2018, 7:47 pm)Panasonic44 wrote Ok now i get what mean about Citaros. Personally I don't like them because being on 3 corridor's they horrible to look at on day by day basics.

Also since South Tyneside changes they are full or empty which I can see it being loss in profits.

The H1 needs to sorted out no one uses it.

(10 Mar 2018, 10:33 am)Michael wrote Has 4937 left Deptford yet?

(10 Mar 2018, 12:55 pm)Dans_bus_photos wrote No its out on the X5 today 

Anyone seen 699 lately? it doesn't seem to have been allocated to the 238s for the past few weeks

(10 Mar 2018, 12:55 pm)Dans_bus_photos wrote No its out on the X5 today 

Anyone seen 699 lately? it doesn't seem to have been allocated to the 238s for the past few weeks

(10 Mar 2018, 1:03 pm)Michael wrote So much for the spare citaro's for the X5 then...

(10 Mar 2018, 10:33 am)Michael wrote Has 4937 left Deptford yet?

(11 Mar 2018, 4:38 pm)Michael wrote What's replacing 635/636 at Peterlee when the AD122 starts at end of the month?