(21 Dec 2016, 10:01 pm)idiot wrote Disgrace that GNE are not adding extra dates on the tickets for when they provide no service on Xmas day and nyd.

It is bad, I agree. I have an Arriva monthly ticket and it is a similar story. Though I have no service on the 26th and only a Sunday service on the 27th - best part of three days without a service.

(21 Dec 2016, 10:15 pm)Malarkey wrote Travel Office at the galleries done me out of 2 Days on my Network One pass the week, said they added them on but didn't and I thought nothing of it as I have never had any issues in the past, until I came to use it last saturday and found it was out of date when I got on the bus.

Your pass should have been a reduced rate if it makes you feel better.

GNEs policy is just greedy and unnecessary. The responses on Facebook have been appalling, usual rank awful customer service. I'd genuinely like to know if the MD can look at those responses and be happy and proud of his staff and the direction they work under. I've worked at many FTSE companies, way bigger than Go Ahead and seen Customer Service Directors hauled over coals and arse kicked for better service than GNE give.


Still, monopoly, they can do what they want. If only we had a regulator with some teeth on ticketing issues.

(21 Dec 2016, 10:58 pm)Ambassador wrote Your pass should have been a reduced rate if it makes you feel better.

GNEs policy is just greedy and unnecessary. The responses on Facebook have been appalling, usual rank awful customer service. I'd genuinely like to know if the MD can look at those responses and be happy and proud of his staff and the direction they work under. I've worked at many FTSE companies, way bigger than Go Ahead and seen Customer Service Directors hauled over coals and arse kicked for better service than GNE give.


Still, monopoly, they can do what they want. If only we had a regulator with some teeth on ticketing issues.

What makes this particularly hard is the amount of counsils involved in the regulation.
You have DCC, Newcasle County Counsil, Gateshead Counsil, North Tyneside Counsil, South Tyneside Counsil, Unitary Authorities (Hartlepool/M'bro) and Northumberland County Counsil.
To come up with some sensible restrictions, you need counsil monitoring - which is impossible given the number of different counsils which will all have their own take on what should be done. After all, companies like GNE satisfy the counsils by providing all of the contracts which have their own restrictions. There is certainly price ammendments made by these contracts - just there is no way to bridge the different counsil's regulations into one central monitoring system. Here's a made up example..

Say DDC, Gateshead Counsil and Newcastle City Counsil (the latter under nexus) agree to join together to make route X70 more affordable.
£1 to the boundery from Consett -> Crookgate, £1 to Newcastle from there. Nexus and Go North East then look at the figures and realise that not nearly enough people are getting on the Bus in or through T&W to make ends meet. Nexus then decide that the prices can be put up allow the leg of the journey to be economically plausable for both operator and nexus itself. So the price then shifts up to £1.50 to go from Crookgate to Gateshead. Are DCC going to then reduce the price of their share of the route? No, because that's going to mess with their figures and contracts. The price - one end to the other is going to be £2.50.

I may be talking utter.. uhm... nonsense with my example, and indeed all of this, but this is how I picture it with contracts involved.

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You make good points, but that's why we have NECA (which is dropping the ball) to pull all this together. It's a tangled web of regional xenophobia and red tape..

The simple answer if for GNE to act like a business that cares about customers and offer extensions/discounts which Arriva, Stagecoach and Network One are all doing. But they don't. So one can only assume they don't.

(22 Dec 2016, 12:06 am)Ambassador wrote You make good points, but that's why we have NECA (which is dropping the ball) to pull all this together. It's a tangled web of regional xenophobia and red tape..

The simple answer if for GNE to act like a business that cares about customers and offer extensions/discounts which Arriva, Stagecoach and Network One are all doing. But they don't. So one can only assume they don't.

They don't have to, though, and this is historical - purely because of the bureaucratic mess this area is when it comes to unity under one authority. There are so many different authorities with different opinions that it becomes literally impossible to stop monopolisation. The counsils independantly dont care what happens so long as there are services provided to their specifications. The counsils are basically at war with each other. At the end of the day, all anybody really cares about in a business financial sector is a line on a chart.
True, passenger satisifaction draws its own line, but only in a context to earn more money. In a monopoly, this becomes less and less of an issue, as do most things because there isn't really an alternative, hence the monopoly.
The counsils work the same, they need to make money count. The counsil just pay out for contracts, they don't gain money from them.
Taking the 704 for an example. Stanley to South Stanley and back 3 times in the evening mon-sat. If Go North East dropped this contract, nobody else will pick it up. Stanley Travel's last run currently finishes around 6pm, so they aren't going to pay somebody two hours extra to go and complete the run. Arriva aren't going to send a bus up light to do a 4 minute run every two hours, in order to have to go back down to durham light. Because of the surrounding monopoly, the counsil see GNE as being the obvious, sustainable candidate to award the 704 contract. GNE have surrounding services through the night and are a reputable brand. There will be tonnes of other examples of contracts like this, where each counsil is happy to allow a huge company continue its monopoly because its practical and sustainable to do so. The counsil can't even really mess with the figures because they rely on GNE to run some of the contracts. If GNE turned around and said 'nope' because they couldn't make a profit from the contract, the route would fall through. They'd have to pay some other business a fortune to keep doors open later or get another business to send buses from the other side of the county. I'm sure other contracts vary, but the counsils are much at the mercy of GNE to be providing their service, at their discretion - so of course, GNE can charge whatever they wish - the counsils can't really object for quite a few of the contracts.

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(21 Dec 2016, 11:58 pm)Jamie M wrote What makes this particularly hard is the amount of counsils involved in the regulation.
You have DCC, Newcasle County Counsil, Gateshead Counsil, North Tyneside Counsil, South Tyneside Counsil, Unitary Authorities (Hartlepool/M'bro) and Northumberland County Counsil.
To come up with some sensible restrictions, you need counsil monitoring - which is impossible given the number of different counsils which will all have their own take on what should be done. After all, companies like GNE satisfy the counsils by providing all of the contracts which have their own restrictions. There is certainly price ammendments made by these contracts - just there is no way to bridge the different counsil's regulations into one central monitoring system.  Here's a made up example..

Say DDC, Gateshead Counsil and Newcastle City Counsil (the latter under nexus) agree to join together to make route X70 more affordable.
£1 to the boundery from Consett -> Crookgate, £1 to Newcastle from there. Nexus and Go North East then look at the figures and realise that not nearly enough people are getting on the Bus in or through T&W to make ends meet. Nexus then decide that the prices can be put up allow the leg of the journey to be economically plausable for both operator and nexus itself. So the price then shifts up to £1.50 to go from Crookgate to Gateshead. Are DCC going to then reduce the price of their share of the route? No, because that's going to mess with their figures and contracts. The price - one end to the other is going to be £2.50.

I may be talking utter.. uhm... nonsense with my example, and indeed all of this, but this is how I picture it with contracts involved.

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As Ambassador pointed out, you have NECA who pull each local council together under the one umbrella.
Granted there may be interests or representatives within the council which undermine it as a whole or have their own agenda, but I'm not sure there would be the situation you describe with the X70.

The tender would go out and each operator would bid for it based on affordability and costs. Issues such as the Stanley Travel example would also be a factor. 
I'm not sure Nexus and/or a local council authority would be too interested in changing the tender to make ends meet either. That's up to the operator who put in the bid to sort out. 

Stanley did used to run a number of evening Nexus contracts prior to the initial takeover by GNE in the early 2000's.
I am sure their currently business model could be adapted if they felt there was enough opportunity.

It is maybe worth noting that the council's on Teesside come under the 'Connect Tees Valley' brand, similar to the T&W councils working under Nexus. 
Subsidies and funding within the Connect LA's and immediate surroundings is minimal, with only Redcar & Cleveland providing (as far as I'm aware) anything above and beyond commercial operations.

Whilst contracts with PTE'S or LA's may have a knock on effect with monopolies in some areas, I think a bigger cause is de-reg.
Whilst it was meant to offer competition, it has clearly resulted in a 'survival of the fittest' after any initial bus wars subsided.
The farce that was ANE v GNE and subsequent investigations regarding business carve-ups seem to back the claim up, that de-reg failed the customer.

Any of those Streetlites arrived yet

(22 Dec 2016, 5:16 pm)Michael wrote Any of those Streetlites arrived yet

I wonder how many people Dan caught out with those photos of the X66 streetlites from last year that he uploaded to flickr last night

(22 Dec 2016, 5:19 pm)S813 FVK wrote I wonder how many people Dan caught out with those photos of the X66 streetlites from last year that he uploaded to flickr last night

I bet a few, i haven't been on Flickr today so i haven't seen them haha

I bet he did it on purpose!

(22 Dec 2016, 5:19 pm)S813 FVK wrote I wonder how many people Dan caught out with those photos of the X66 streetlites from last year that he uploaded to flickr last night

I was one

Surreal moment of the night was seeing a broken down Cats Fast Solar on Hetton Road being overtaken by Santa on a sleigh  (being pulled by a van).

The next X5 was a Castle Eden run, so hopefully those wanting to do the bit beyond Peterlee were catered for.
I am guessing the broken down Solar had been there a while, as I saw the Castle Eden X5 coming down Houghton Cut moments after seeing the expired vehicle.

(22 Dec 2016, 6:55 pm)Andreos1 wrote Surreal moment of the night was seeing a broken down Cats Fast Solar on Hetton Road being overtaken by Santa on a sleigh  (being pulled by a van).

The next X5 was a Castle Eden run, so hopefully those wanting to do the bit beyond Peterlee were catered for.
I am guessing the broken down Solar had been there a while, as I saw the Castle Eden X5 coming down Houghton Cut moments after seeing the expired vehicle.

How come Santa's sleigh was being pulled by a van? Did he have a 'Claus' in his contract? 

(22 Dec 2016, 8:39 pm)Adrian wrote How come Santa's sleigh was being pulled by a van? Did he have a 'Claus' in his contract? 

Rudolph heard the word 'Go via...' and downed tools .

Saw said Sleigh last Friday around Easington, was an interesting sight.

(21 Dec 2016, 4:38 pm)Dan wrote Percy Main started to upload the announcements to the indiGo buses yesterday.

There is a fault with the system that helps piece together the announcements for the Quaylink, Citylink and TEN which is being looked into by Hanover.

(21 Dec 2016, 4:47 pm)Tom wrote Great thank you

Should have been uploaded to all of the indiGos now.

(23 Dec 2016, 7:40 am)Dan wrote Should have been uploaded to all of the indiGos now.

Yeah saw them last night very good
Couldn't find any faults with them though I only went a short way

(23 Dec 2016, 7:40 am)Dan wrote Should have been uploaded to all of the indiGos now.

Not quite dan,the 40 i was on last night had none

(23 Dec 2016, 10:30 am)V514DFT wrote Not quite dan,the 40 i was on last night had none

"Now" means today, not yesterday!

The last few were uploaded during the early hours of this morning.

(23 Dec 2016, 2:19 am)GMitchelhill wrote Saw said Sleigh last Friday around Easington, was an interesting sight.

Hope you got a photo mind

(22 Dec 2016, 5:19 pm)S813 FVK wrote I wonder how many people Dan caught out with those photos of the X66 streetlites from last year that he uploaded to flickr last night

(22 Dec 2016, 5:21 pm)Michael wrote I bet a few, i haven't been on Flickr today so i haven't seen them haha

I bet he did it on purpose!

The main reason I uploaded them again is because we've been making some improvements to our fleet archive information. I mentioned quite some time ago that I was looking to go back and make the archive information a bit more detailed, containing photographs (if available) for that specific fleet number and not including photographs if not.

I've now gone through most of the vehicles new in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2016 to add specific delivery dates (including photos where possible), dates of branding and dates of entry into service.

I've uploaded as many photos of Go North East buses on delivery as possible for this purpose.

I'll be going through the rest too of course, and editing some of the archive information to make it more accurate. One of the ones which now looks rather complete is 6119. Another example which is looking quite good is 6043.

(23 Dec 2016, 10:37 am)Dan wrote "Now" means today, not yesterday!

The last few were uploaded during the early hours of this morning.

You'll have it to do again soon lol with the upcoming changes to the 42

Whats the allocations for this years boxing day services?

(24 Dec 2016, 10:38 am)Michael wrote Whats the allocations for this years boxing day services?

I believe the 21s are going off Stanley's buses (omnidekkas), or at least that was the last rumour to go between drivers.
I'm also led to believe that V7 and 16A interwork to some extent. (PVR of 1 for each, 3 buses total)
The 6s and X30/1s will almost certainly interwork.
47 (45E) is just returns itself all day. The shifts are quite odd up Stanley, it wouldn't surprise me if there is more than two vans, just for getting drivers up for the 47.
Summary:
47 will be streetlites (RK)
V7/16A will possibly be Citaros
X30/X31/6 will possibly be Omnicity (with spares)
21 will possibly be Stanley Omnidekka

The streetlites may all go onto the X30/X31/6, so the omnicitys can perform 47, so the spare streetlite and a spare RK + another spare can operate 16/a and V7, meaning the citaros can stay offroad. I doubt they will want to send out the SRs, they're fairly new buses with high milage and are small - they're screaming for a couple of days off service. I don't think the older double deckers will touch service either, unless there is high traffic predictions, but it would have to be drastic because at least 3 of those are pourly to say the least.



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Last year's allocations can be found via the following link:
http://northeastbuses.co.uk/forum/showth...p?tid=1664&pid=142907#pid142907

I can't imagine anything dramatically changing other than the 97 being allocated B9TLs and the Red Kite B9TLs making their way onto service 47 along with any red deckers if necessary - i would imagine they want to put as many double deckers on the road as possible. I would say that the X31 is likely to be Omnidekkas too like the X30.

(24 Dec 2016, 11:24 am)S813 FVK wrote Last year's allocations can be found via the following link:
http://northeastbuses.co.uk/forum/showth...p?tid=1664&pid=142907#pid142907

I can't imagine anything dramatically changing other than the 97 being allocated B9TLs and the Red Kite B9TLs making their way onto service 47 along with any red deckers if necessary - i would imagine they want to put as many double deckers on the road as possible. I would say that the X31 is likely to be Omnidekkas too like the X30.

They're not giving the X30/1 a 20 minute break in newcastle, somebody who's on these explains it's like an early sunday, but there's also a 30 min 6 frequency to provide the same to X31. The bus goes in 6, comes out X30 or X31. X30 or X31 goes in, comes out as 6.

Also the 47 is a 30 min frequency on a run that takes over two hours, so the 4 B9s alone cannot cover it. Stanley like keeping these offroad as much as possible because they're nice and want the milage down. Wouldn't be surprised if these stayed at home all day, they're never on late boards apart from one on a sunday that finishes on a Stanley taxi board at 2030.
This is still subject to change until today, I believe that's when duties are being assigned properly.
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I don't understand why Stanley would want to allocate as few double deckers as possible when the amount of passengers is going to be much higher than normal.

The 47 was allocated Omnidekkas and B7s last year at a PVR of 5, it would be wise to do this again using the 4 B9s to give customers free WiFi as they would get on a normal day and one of the Omnidekkas. Of course, they could just allocate the Omnidekkas like last year like you wre suggesting to provide a consistent service across the whole PVR.

The X30/X31 interworking with the 6 makes sense as this is something that happened last year, albeit the X30 only as the X31 didn't run, and is something that happens every Sunday during the year anyway.

The 16A and V7 are the only services that are likely to be allocated single deckers (Durham diamond Citaros again). Not many people will be heading to Durham and the V7 capacity is increased although by not much admittedly and the 6 is always there for people heading to the Metrocentre

(24 Dec 2016, 11:45 am)S813 FVK wrote I don't understand why Stanley would want to allocate as few double deckers as possible when the amount of passengers is going to be much higher than normal.

The 47 was allocated Omnidekkas and B7s last year at a PVR of 5, it would be wise to do this again using the 4 B9s to give customers free WiFi as they would get on a normal day and one of the Omnidekkas. Of course, they could just allocate the Omnidekkas like last year like you wre suggesting to provide a consistent service across the whole PVR.

The X30/X31 interworking with the 6 makes sense as this is something that happened last year, albeit the X30 only as the X31 didn't run, and is something that happens every Sunday during the year anyway.

The 16A and V7 are the only services that are likely to be allocated single deckers (Durham diamond Citaros again). Not many people will be heading to Durham and the V7 capacity is increased although by not much admittedly and the 6 is always there for people heading to the Metrocentre

I don't know how many (if the rumours are true) omnidekkas will be used from Stanley at CLS. If it's a huge portion, you need to think capacity. An Omnidekka holds around 90 people max, an Omnicity and Streetlite around 60-70. There's very little difference in reality, and I'd be surprised if a single Stanley bus was full past 70 people.

I also believe that they will put some Euro5s on the 16a/V7 to save fuel, as described above, but that's just guess work based on what I know about how Stanley has changed its ways of operation.
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(24 Dec 2016, 11:24 am)S813 FVK wrote Last year's allocations can be found via the following link:
http://northeastbuses.co.uk/forum/showth...p?tid=1664&pid=142907#pid142907

I can't imagine anything dramatically changing other than the 97 being allocated B9TLs and the Red Kite B9TLs making their way onto service 47 along with any red deckers if necessary - i would imagine they want to put as many double deckers on the road as possible. I would say that the X31 is likely to be Omnidekkas too like the X30.

I think it was Dan said that the 20 in Sunderland were going to be allocated FAB 56 B9's.

Wonder what the X5 will be allocated?

(24 Dec 2016, 12:38 pm)Michael wrote I think it was Dan said that the 20 in Sunderland were going to be allocated FAB 56 B9's.

Wonder what the X5 will be allocated?

If the 20/20A is being allocated FAB56 B9s, Then its a possibility the Prince Bishops Streetlite's will be allocated to the X5? , Could also see them appearing on the 61, See it Do it's etc.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


In other news, The new Streetlite's currently on delivery look to have new window alingments, Which heavily benefit people sat the back.

Seen here : https://www.flickr.com/photos/nsf323alis...otostream/


Looks like no one will suffer in the summer from now on

(24 Dec 2016, 1:28 pm)South Tyne Lad wrote If the 20/20A is being allocated FAB56 B9s, Then its a possibility the Prince Bishops Streetlite's will be allocated to the X5? , Could also see them appearing on the 61, See it Do it's etc.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


In other news, The new Streetlite's currently on delivery look to have new window alingments, Which heavily benefit people sat the back.

Seen here : https://www.flickr.com/photos/nsf323alis...otostream/


Looks like no one will suffer in the summer from now on

Its the e-leather that most people hate

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