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.

I love the fleet list idea, it looks great

where will this be posted?

Edit: i love how i can search for Deptford for a example, that's really helpful!

(24 Jul 2013, 11:38 am)Michael wrote I love the fleet list idea, it looks great

where will this be posted?

Thanks. A few late nights and a couple of hours of effort and they're all done - though I'm sure there'll be a few odd mistakes in there from when I've been tired!
Once the fleet list homepage has been fully created, a link will be placed alongside the "Forum" and "Flickr" links on the nav-bar, and I'm sure we'll have a link on the recently re-designed homepage too (www.northeastbuses.co.uk).

EDIT: That's why the fleet lists were created that way. It's so much easier, and you can see the number of results too on the bottom of the page. Fleet lists are out there on the market already, but the format I've done them in certainly aren't - and it's the kind of format I'd prefer and hopefully others prefer it that way too. :p


Three new threads (one for each operator) will be created later today for the Fleet News. The posts will be in a reverse-style order so we always have an archive of previous news, but it will go towards the bottom of the post rather than stay at the top. The threads will be stickied in the appropriate operator's section of the forum so they're separated from our normal discussion threads.

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 wrote 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.

I hadn't thought about keeping archiving information that way, but it would certainly be a good idea to try and implement it - providing it's easy enough to code! I'll speak to Liam about it later, and see how easy it is to do that.

Tyne & Wear Metro one is already in the pipeline. I may have got a bit carried away when first doing all of the fleetlists and decided I wanted to do one for the Metro too...

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]

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 wrote 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 wrote

(24 Jul 2013, 2:54 pm)Michael wrote 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.

Oh right, didn't think of that

Loving the changes in Bus Operators - rest don't bother me that much as I'm not really into fleet lists etc

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!

Thanks =)

Can I make one suggestion?

In the Navigation at the top you now see

Forum - Local Bus - Go North East - Go North East

Would it be prudent to make the main GNE page Go North East Discussion just to break it up slightly?

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 wrote Would it be prudent to make the main GNE page Go North East Discussion just to break it up slightly?

I'll get onto that a little later. Does make sense, though I hadn't noticed it myself! Will repeat for all other operators too.


Fleet List update... All vehicles on the Arriva North East fleet list that are under repair (UR), for disposal (D) or reserves ® have been noted under the depot field with the given acronyms.
There will still be a few errors and no doubt updates needed as I did start entering the data for the fleetlists at the start of June IIRC - updated a few I've spotted plus the ones I was PM'd about, but I feel there will still be more!

Also, following on from the suggestion by aureolin in Post #4, we have added the 'Vehicle History' feature to the fleetlists. The coding is in place for all vehicles within the three main fleetlists, but it does obviously take time to get around to inputting the information! Liam has worked hard enough on the coding, so it's my job to enter all the data and whatnot. That said, if any member would like to help out (I imagine examples like "The Orbit" Versas, "Red Arrows" Geminis etc will be pretty easy, while "Northern" branded vehicles may take a while), feel free to get in touch.
For a working example of this, see Go North East's 8319.

It would be nice to implement a 'Status' field too, but I don't know if it would actually fit into the database table or not. Like I said to Michael, we really are pushed for space and any more narrowing down of the field width and most items will end up going onto two lines rather than the current one (providing you have an average sized computer screen with appropriate resolution, of course!) May differ when viewing on other devices or smaller screens. We already do have 'Withdrawn' (shown in depot column) and we can assume the vehicle is 'In Service' if it doesn't have anything else in it. Would be nice to implement ANE's 'UR' (Under Repair) too, to show that a vehicle is off-road for a long period of time. I mean, it's not as if we struggle for news at various depots to know these things, is it? A few members (myself included) perform several visits per week!
What will happen when a vehicle is sold, I do not know. It would be nice to keep it on the fleetlist, but I really don't know how it would work.

Finally, Metro fleetlist. All data gathered, we're just waiting on Liam to finish coding the admin section before I can add/edit/delete records. Should be all of a ten minute job (90 records... easy!) when we have the admin section complete. We currently have four (Unit Number, Name, Livery and Status) fields - does anyone know of any additional fields we may need? Whether the train has been refurbished or not will come under status I believe, 'In Service - Refurbished' etc. You'll also be able to notice it in the Livery column as it will be a different livery to the standard one used on the non-refurbished Metrocars.

Stay tuned, more updates coming soon.
I'll avoid consuming this thread with my own posts from now!

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.