https://twitter.com/darlingtonbc/status/...1254187008

DBC holding sessions for tenders

The contract for service 11 (South Shields - South Tyneside Hospital - Low Simonside - Hill Park - Jarrow), currently operated by Stagecoach North East, has been retained by Stagecoach. The new contract commences from 26/07/15 for three years. The contract was awarded on a non-conforming basis, representing the best value for money in terms of service specification and tender conditions.

Any contract tenders coming up for grabs?

(01 Jul 2015, 1:30 pm)Michael wrote Any contract tenders coming up for grabs?

Yes - a large number of scholars and workers services from September 2015.

I believe Kingsley's have lost service 960 (Waterview Park - South Shields) and Stanley Travel have lost service 968 (Waterview Park - Easington Lane).

Not a great deal else worth noting, to be honest.

The VOSA registrations to confirm the above, and further workers services, should appear shortly.

(01 Jul 2015, 2:21 pm)Dan wrote Yes - a large number of scholars and workers services from September 2015.

I believe Kingsley's have lost service 960 (Waterview Park - South Shields) and Stanley Travel have lost service 968 (Waterview Park - Easington Lane).

Not a great deal else worth noting, to be honest.

The VOSA registrations to confirm the above, and further workers services, should appear shortly.

Cheers Dan.

Wonder if GNE will continue to run all of the scholars they do atm

(01 Jul 2015, 2:25 pm)Michael wrote Cheers Dan.

Wonder if GNE will continue to run all of the scholars they do atm

I'd imagine that Go North East will win some new tenders, and lose others.

There seems to have been a trend set over the past few years which has seen a decrease in the number of scholars operated by Go North East, to allow the withdrawal of further non-DDA compliant vehicles (Volvo B10BLE, Volvo Olympian and Dennis Trident). As (in most cases) it's more cost-effective to bin a contract than to acquire a replacement bus to replace a non-DDA vehicle on said contract (new or second-hand), I think it's fairly obvious what will happen again this year...

The Nexus Miscellaneous Workings have all now been awarded to bus operators in the region. VOSA registrations for these workings have already started to appear, and a number of you have copied these registrations into the respective bus operator threads.

I have outlined below the different contract specifications, and how many vehicles are required of the successful tenderer. It's important to point out that each individual vehicle may work a number of scholars and workers services. These contracts all commence from September, and are of a three-year duration (ending September 2018).

Low Floor Vehicle - Minimum Capacity of 84 - Euro 4

• Stanley Travel - 2 Vehicles
  
• Gateshead Central Taxis - 4 Vehicles
  
• Arriva North East - 2 Vehicles
  
• Jim Hughes Coaches - 1 Vehicle
  
• Nightingale Coaches - 6 Vehicles
  
• Phoenix Coaches - 3 Vehicles
  
• Kingsleys Coaches - 9 Vehicles
  

Low Floor Vehicle - Minimum Capacity of 60 - Euro 4

• Gateshead Central Taxis - 1 Vehicle
  
• Go North East - 2 Vehicles
  

Low Floor Vehicle - Minimum Capacity of 44 - Euro 4

• Go North East - 3 Vehicles
  

(15 Jul 2015, 6:11 pm)Dan wrote The Nexus Miscellaneous Workings have all now been awarded to bus operators in the region. VOSA registrations for these workings have already started to appear, and a number of you have copied these registrations into the respective bus operator threads.

I have outlined below the different contract specifications, and how many vehicles are required of the successful tenderer. It's important to point out that each individual vehicle may work a number of scholars and workers services. These contracts all commence from September, and are of a three-year duration (ending September 2018).

Low Floor Vehicle - Minimum Capacity of 84 - Euro 4

• Stanley Travel - 2 Vehicles
  
• Gateshead Central Taxis - 4 Vehicles
  
• Arriva North East - 2 Vehicles
  
• Jim Hughes Coaches - 1 Vehicle
  
• Nightingale Coaches - 6 Vehicles
  
• Phoenix Coaches - 3 Vehicles
  
• Kingsleys Coaches - 9 Vehicles
  

Low Floor Vehicle - Minimum Capacity of 60 - Euro 4

• Gateshead Central Taxis - 1 Vehicle
  
• Go North East - 2 Vehicles
  

Low Floor Vehicle - Minimum Capacity of 44 - Euro 4

• Go North East - 3 Vehicles
  

GNE have lost quite a bit, seems the Olympian will be gone by the start of September?

(15 Jul 2015, 6:22 pm)Michael wrote GNE have lost quite a bit, seems the Olympian will be gone by the start of September?

bloody hope so..... **runs away from Marcus** 

(15 Jul 2015, 6:23 pm)citaro5284 wrote bloody hope so..... **runs away from Marcus** 

, infact it could be the next few weeks, schools finish this week.

(15 Jul 2015, 6:26 pm)Michael wrote , infact it could be the next few weeks, schools finish this week.

Not if Stanley have any say in it 

(15 Jul 2015, 6:22 pm)Michael wrote GNE have lost quite a bit, seems the Olympian will be gone by the start of September?

(15 Jul 2015, 6:26 pm)Michael wrote , infact it could be the next few weeks, schools finish this week.

The Nexus Miscellaneous Workings comprise of scholars services and workers services, and sometimes both of these are found within the same contract. As such, I think that all appropriate cascades and withdrawals will commence in September and no sooner.

It looks like Go North East has lost around ten buses worth of work in total, so this should allow for around ten further withdrawals from the fleet.

This isn't strictly relevant to this section of the forum; but with regards to the cascades and withdrawals that will take place as a consequence of this, it's also worth keeping in mind that Go North East is also due to withdraw three more vehicles as a result of the entry into service of the first batch of Scania OmniDekkas, and at least eleven more vehicles are due to be withdrawn by the end of the year when the next batch of former Brighton & Hove Scania OmniDekkas migrate north. That totals fourteen vehicles, and when we pair this with the above PVR decrease, totals twenty four vehicles.

Go North East is currently in the process of withdrawing Volvo Olympians and East Lancs Lolyne bodied Dennis Tridents from its fleet.

• Volvo Olympian - 5x Stanley Depot, 3x Riverside Depot [TOTAL 8].
  
• Dennis Trident - 10x Chester-le-Street Depot, 5x Stanley Depot, 4x Percy Main Depot [TOTAL 19].

Marcus has already confirmed elsewhere on the forum that some scholars services in County Durham are also due to change.

I think this puts Go North East in a really good position to withdraw all of the above vehicles from its fleet (perhaps excluding the two "DFDS Seaways" branded Lolynes at Percy Main?) Of course, some single deckers may be withdrawn instead...

Any further speculation on this matter should go in the relevant thread!

Any updates on upcoming contract changes? (expect the ones which have being confirmed)

Hi there I am new here and I live in Humshaugh, Northumberland and I am trying to disentangle the mess of bus services in the area. My partner and I both have a disability and are reliant on bus services. I have never seen such a shocking level of unprofessional attitude and policies towards transport provision in my life. Many years ago I had a major piece of research published on bus deregulation and the person who assisted was a certain Counsellor David Begg in Edinburgh and this chap went on to be Tony Blairs personal advisor on bus transport. I do have some insight into the whole area of bus transport provision.
There are villages such as Wark that don’t have any bus stops or timetables. My local bus stop has bus services missing from the timetable. The county council fund all of the services and do absolutely nothing to promote them. At present they are cutting back massively on tendered services. The 682 Hexham to Colwell bus is being withdrawn. The operator Go Northeast who run the service under contract to the county council haven’t given the transport commissioner the required 56 days minimum  notice for a service change or withdrawal. The list is endless of unprofessional, bordering on illegal activities. For some reason the Council Haven’t applied for any payment from the BSOG for the period 2014-2015, when in previous years they have received quite substantial sums of money. I would content that the council are deliberately attempting to run down bus services by proxy. A good example is the bus gerrymandering of the 880 Kielder to Hexham bus.This has been cut back to just a Kielder to Bellingham service. It now makes it impossible to have a day at the National Park of travelling from South of Bellingham. The buses don’t connect or miss the last bus at Bellingham. The county council are legally responsible for timetables and bus stops. There isn’t any evidence at Kielder of any bus service existing at Kielder.
This morning I have been attempting to find out about a Tuesday only service that runs between Kielder and hexham. I am very good on the internet and it has been a real problem finding anything out about this service. It is not listed on my local bus stop. Eventually after much digging and wildcarding I found a service 694 run by Adapt. This service does not appear on their website or on any mobile transport mobile/ IOS app. I really have no idea if this bus will come or bring me back.
If an experienced internet user as myself can’t find this service how can a casual traveller. I have a high knowledge of bus service provision and experience of working within the research community and this terrible web of shocking behaviour is the worst I have ever seen. The county council here in Northumberland seem to be at the root of the problem. I have managed to have a letter published in the Hexham Courant but this was heavily edited.
I am at a loss to know what to do really. There is massive local indifference here to public transport and anyone without a car is treated by many like a second class citizen. The area is affluent and car obsessed and many may have given up trying to travel by bus as they simply don’t know when and if there are services. I suspect that was the aim all along.
So I still don’t know if my bus will be running today. I too feel like just giving up. But if I do I could be left without a bus and will have to move house.

(29 Sep 2015, 5:15 am)mark62 wrote The county council fund all of the services and do absolutely nothing to promote them. At present they are cutting back massively on tendered services. The 682 Hexham to Colwell bus is being withdrawn. The operator Go Northeast who run the service under contract to the county council haven’t given the transport commissioner the required 56 days minimum  notice for a service change or withdrawal. The list is endless of unprofessional, bordering on illegal activities.

Hi Mark - just want to pick up on the point quoted in this post.

I refer to this document (Page 14 - Part 3). There are a number of cases when services may be registered, cancelled or changed with less than 56 days' notice.

When the contracts were registered initially, I believe they were registered with less than 56 days' notice, but I believe that these services were registered to replace a service which another operator intended to stop running. As such, in accordance with the guidelines on the link above, Go North East did not have to give 56 days' notice to VOSA. The new services were introduced from 3rd August 2015, and the journeys on one service were merely being introduced as a trial. The regular 56 days' notice would have meant that Go North East would have had to submit the amendment registration by 16th August 2015 - but this would have only allowed a two-week trial. It seems obvious to me that there was a three-month trial, and the reason for the short-notice registration would fall under "there are circumstances which you could have not reasonably foreseen which prevented you from giving the full 56 days' notice to register, cancel or change the service".

The councils often advise the operators themselves with very little advance notice, and contracted services which have gone out to tender are always subject to change at last minute. The reason why the exceptions on the above link exist are because it is not always practical to give 56 days' notice (however inconvenient this is to passengers) - I would not expect larger groups such as Arriva, First, Go-Ahead and Stagecoach to be breaking the law.

On another note - I noticed an invitation to tender for three Durham Park & Ride Lumiere services went out about a week ago.

I believe it was a fairly short-notice contract: Durham County Council gave operators about a week to express interest.

In the past (notably when Arriva has operated the normal Park & Ride services), Arriva has operated the additional buses on services PR1 and PR2, while Go North East has operated special service PR5.

(29 Sep 2015, 5:44 am)Dan wrote On another note - I noticed an invitation to tender for three Durham Park & Ride Lumiere services went out about a week ago.

I believe it was a fairly short-notice contract: Durham County Council gave operators about a week to express interest.

In the past (notably when Arriva has operated the normal Park & Ride services), Arriva has operated the additional buses on services PR1 and PR2, while Go North East has operated special service PR5.

I was wondering about this yesterday as I'm not sure Scarlet Band would have the resources to take on for the extra runs on the normal Durham Park and Ride services.

Looking at the Lumiere website, the park and rides will be the same as last time with the three usual Park and Ride sites/services being in operation with extra Park and Rides from New College Durham (which GNE did last time) and Merryoaks which is near Cock o' the North on the A167 (think Garrnett's did these services last time).

I remember Arriva used the Park and Ride branded Solos plus some double deckers on their additional PR1/PR2 runs with some of the deckers being X93 branded Enviro 400's. If I remember correctly the PR1 was split in Durham so they didn't operate across the city as normal.

Should be intresting to see what happens this time around. Going to need to learn how to use my camera at night for this.

I guess the fact that SB don't have the bigger buses is the reason that a tender has been put out.

I've never actually made it to a Lumiere. I'd injured myself struggling home from school with a boy who didn't want to walk where I needed to walk last time and did not fancy an evening out in the cold with him and the time before, the same boy was poorly and, even if he wasn't, we didn't fancy the crowds with his SN buggy.

I actually had a look at the tender for this when it came out. If I remember right there was a PR2 from Sniperley, PR4 from New College and PR5 from Merryoaks which suggests Scarlet Band will be operating PR1 only flat out with the extra resources normally used on PR2. I can't remember the PVRs requested but I think it was something like 4, 3 and 7 respectively

Any tenders coming up for grabs?

Heard from whispers the other day that Arriva Darlington could be getting the work that sales and district do now

So that would be

29- Darlington to Richmond
34- Darlington to scorton/Marne barracks
72- Darlington to northallerton
610- Darlington to leyburn/askrigg (old X59)

Is there any truth in the rumour that I heard ?

It's been going for a couple of months mate, couple of D&D drivers have been circulating the information. Obviously it would be up for tender, but I can't see anyone else being able to take it on apart from Arriva.

(14 Nov 2015, 12:29 am)Stuartphin1639 wrote Heard from whispers the other day that Arriva Darlington could be getting the work that sales and district do now

So that would be

29- Darlington to Richmond
34- Darlington to scorton/Marne barracks
72- Darlington to northallerton
610- Darlington to leyburn/askrigg (old X59)

Is there any truth in the rumour that I heard ?

(15 Nov 2015, 5:58 pm)MrPottski wrote It's been going for a couple of months mate, couple of D&D drivers have been circulating the information. Obviously it would be up for tender,  but I can't see anyone else being able to take it on apart from Arriva.

Thing with this rumour, do we think this would this be all Dales & District services, selected services or just the ones listed in Stuart's post above as D&D also run the following services:

31 Richmond Town Service.
54/55 Northallerton - Richmond.
70 Northallerton - Ripon.
73 Northallerton - Bedale.
74 Northallerton Town Service.
136 Ripon - Melmerby Business Park.
138 Ripon - Masham.
139 Ripon - Fountains Abbey.
144 Masham - Bedale.
155 Leyburn - Bedale.
159 Richmond - Ripon.
856 Northallerton - Hawes (Dalesbus).

I can't see Arriva taking on all of those services, especially the ones in Ripon. Think Arriva could maybe take over the likes of the 29, 34, 72 and 610 easily, especially as they ran the 29/34/72 in the past, but not sure how you'd work the rest of the services from Darlington depot. Perhaps Shaun's (Ripon) could maybe take on some of the other services as they run the 153 between Northallerton and Thirsk and 3 days a week I believe they also run a service between Thirsk and Ripon Bus Station so they could maybe take on some of the work as well. Abbott's of Leaming Bar maybe could as well.

Obviously it's all rumours and not everything is known about what would happen etc. Also some of the services l have listed are due to be cut back as further spending cuts take place, the 54 will no longer run to Richmond and a rumour I heard is the town services will go, so lord knows what would happen.

(14 Nov 2015, 12:29 am)Stuartphin1639 wrote Heard from whispers the other day that Arriva Darlington could be getting the work that sales and district do now

I've merged this thread with the general tender discussion thread.

Possibly reopening an outstation in Richmond with Darlington based buses could be an idea, there's plenty of drivers based down that way.
Hodgsons could take on some more service work, as well as Shaun's and Abbots.
It's a shame to see Procters cutting back so much, it really pissed me off they took Leven Valley on, just to wind it up. I understand there's more to it than that but from the outside, it didn't look good. I think the Spirit Buses example proves that start up bus companies struggle so it's good luck to whoever takes the work on.

The NYCC stuff was all re-tendered recently (earlier this year I think) for which D&D won most of it back, with Little White Bus taking on some of the more rural stuff like the 30. I've heard rumours of Procter dumping the service work too, though. Interesting times ahead maybe

(13 Nov 2015, 2:45 pm)Michael wrote Any tenders coming up for grabs?

Nexus released four tenders earlier this afternoon:


Service 15/15A (Kenton Shops - Newcastle City Centre - Walker)
Contract Period: 20/03/2016 - 18/03/2017
Currently operated by Stagecoach North East.

Contractual requirements:
Saturdays Only
4x low-floor Euro 4 vehicles with a minimum capacity of 36 - full size single deck/double deck vehicles are not suitable for this route.


Service 33 (Newcastle City Centre - Jesmond - Hollywood Avenue)
Currently operated by Kingsley's Coaches.

Contractual requirements:
Monday - Saturday
2x low-floor Euro 4 vehicles with a minimum capacity of 36.


Service 35 (Newcastle City Centre - Red House Farm - Newcastle City Centre)
Contract Period: 20/03/2016 - 18/03/2017
Currently operated by Stagecoach North East.

Contractual requirements:
Saturdays Only
2x low-floor Euro 4 vehicles with a minimum capacity of 49 - full size single deck/double deck vehicles are not suitable for this route.


Service 57A (Cramlington - Seaton Delaval - Whitley Bay - North Tyneside General Hospital - North Shields)
Contract Period: 20/03/2016 - 18/03/2017
Currently operated by Arriva North East.

Contractual requirements:
Daily, evenings only.
2x low-floor Euro 4 vehicles with a minimum capacity of 36.

(27 Nov 2015, 4:30 pm)Dan wrote Nexus released four tenders earlier this afternoon:


Service 15/15A (Kenton Shops - Newcastle City Centre - Walker)
Contract Period: 20/03/2016 - 18/03/2017
Currently operated by Stagecoach North East.

Contractual requirements:
Saturdays Only
4x low-floor Euro 4 vehicles with a minimum capacity of 36 - full size single deck/double deck vehicles are not suitable for this route.


Service 33 (Newcastle City Centre - Jesmond - Hollywood Avenue)
Currently operated by Kingsley's Coaches.

Contractual requirements:
Monday - Saturday
2x low-floor Euro 4 vehicles with a minimum capacity of 36.


Service 35 (Newcastle City Centre - Red House Farm - Newcastle City Centre)
Contract Period: 20/03/2016 - 18/03/2017
Currently operated by Stagecoach North East.

Contractual requirements:
Saturdays Only
2x low-floor Euro 4 vehicles with a minimum capacity of 49 - full size single deck/double deck vehicles are not suitable for this route.


Service 57A (Cramlington - Seaton Delaval - Whitley Bay - North Tyneside General Hospital - North Shields)
Contract Period: 20/03/2016 - 18/03/2017
Currently operated by Arriva North East.

Contractual requirements:
Daily, evenings only.
2x low-floor Euro 4 vehicles with a minimum capacity of 36.

Think these will all stay where they are.

(27 Nov 2015, 4:56 pm)DanPicken wrote Think these will all stay where they are.

I reckon Go North East could stand a chance with the 57A.

None of Arriva Northumbria's depots have Euro4 minibuses. So I certainly can't see the evening 57/57a staying with Arriva.