RE: Go North East: Latest News & Discussion - March 2018
(16 Mar 2018, 12:45 pm)Jamie M wrote Not a fan of the new-old B9s. They don't feel particularly comfortable or stable whilst in motion. Perhaps that's an explanation for the 45mph speed limit. When in passenger seats, the top of the seat ends under my shoulder. An improvement on the omnidekkas but not exactly amazing. Guess it does the job, though.
Whatever Omnidekka Washington has, seems to have more power than their B9's. Noticeable on the Washington Highway slip-roads in particular.
The B9's often seem sluggish on the northbound 'on' Newcastle bound from the Galleries.
The Omnidekka/s I have ridden have gone up their almost Olympian like.
(16 Mar 2018, 3:00 pm)Jamie M wrote Nah, they're solid motors if they can evade fires 
. Get yourself onto a 50A, and you'll see they can build up speed well and remain integral at 60mph. They have a tendancy to lean, and occasionally the ferry mechanism can stick. That means they drive around with the body at 45* angle, but overall, remain good buses.
I like them.
May have the turning circle of a cruise ship and feel as though they're gonna flip over on their side, but seem good, solid vehicles - whatever their mechanical quirks.
Ridden more recently since Washington have got them and I don't have too many issues, despite their age.
(16 Mar 2018, 4:19 pm)Dan wrote VOSA aren't the 'animals' some enthusiasts make them out to be.
They're in regular contact with all operators, and as long as a marked improvement can be seen in the area of complaint, or the operator can prove the measures they're putting in place to avoid repeat occurrences, then VOSA are happy.
Whilst any breakdown on such an infrequent service like the X9/X10 is going to cause an inconvenience, Go North East do more than they have to, to ensure that the least disruption is caused to customers. They don't have to divert the following service via the alternative route to ensure any stranded passengers are picked up, but they do. They don't have to report each and every single breakdown or incident that happens on these services, but they do.
A lot of the incidents may not actually be due to the reliability of the vehicle type - the posts are often quite vague - but a recent example would be a woman entering labour whilst on-board the X10 service. As quickly as possible, a plan was devised to notify passengers in Newcastle and transport them across to Gateshead, where a spare bus and Leading Driver took over the duty towards Middlesbrough. This is only possible thanks to Go North East's Service Delivery Centre, who work around the clock to try and minimise disruption customers face (something which the likes of Arriva North East do not have!)
The A19 slip-road would be omitted because it's going right through Peterlee and would need to serve the stops for Crawford Avenue etc - there aren't a great deal of passengers who board at this stop anyway - but the driver would probably make sure to go round the roundabout slow enough to undertake a quick visual check of whether anyone is waiting at the stop, and I'd go as far to suggest would probably wait a few moments if someone was waiting there, to allow the passengers time to walk/jog/run to the Moorcock bus stop. I'd say most passengers probably would have already done this after 20-minutes of an X10 being a no-show, anyway.
Yes, the X9 should serve Dalton Park if the previous X10 had broken down. There are announcements programmed in for both eventualities, which also apologise for the inconvenience caused etc. An apology won't always make up for the disruption to the customer's day, but it's better than nothing at all.
Breakdowns on the X9/X10 are exaggerated by enthusiasts. There's no denying that any breakdown is going to cause inconvenience, but we're only aware of all of these breakdowns because Go North East report every single one on Social Media. Truth of the matter is, if these weren't reported on Social Media by Go North East, I'd say it would largely go unnoticed.
There could be breakdowns left, right and centre on Andreos1's beloved Prince Bishops services, but a big thing isn't made of it, because Go North East don't report them on Social Media (by the time they did, the next bus would have arrived for the majority of customers, who live on the combined 10-minute headway sections of the route).
A lot of them are limited to 50mph, these days.
The speed limiters are planned to be upped to Go North East's more usual 60-ish mph limiter soon.
The seats aren't the most comfortable, but a marginal improvement on what the seats were like previously when in London, as they've had extra padding added during refurbishment. In an ideal world, the seats would have been swapped out for standard Civic V3s and covered in the new leather (like the Citaros) but this would have added significant cost, when the idea was sourcing low-cost replacements for the V-reg Volvo B7s.
Have to remember that some of these buses are only being allocated to St Bede's scholars services, so the buses don't need to be the absolute bees knees.
6314 was dropping in on the 06:25 X9 from Newcastle, from Peterlee, at around 07:50am. So around 30 minutes late, but better than not at all.
Updates would have been more than appreciated on the X1 this morning.
Twitter and fb posts not replied to or acknowledged, despite big gaps in service.
Cold, wet and inevitably late for school/work, numerous examples from passengers querying why there were gaps of 35mins plus. Even with a 10min headway...
An eventual post half an hour after my bus joined a queue that stretched from Newbottle to Shiney Row answered some questions.
It certainly didnt answer all.
If this control centre was so efficient, then I am sure it would have been good practice to find out what was going on.
Vehicles have radios and technology allows tracking. Yet nothing... Not a thing from anyone.
Nothing was reported in on my vehicle. Nothing was done by control to try and find out why the vehicle was so late. Nothing was reported on social media. Nothing was done to divert vehicles.
Regardless of the apparent two missing vehicles in front...
As you say, they don't have to. It's nice when they do, particularly when the tools are there to do so.
'Illegitimis non carborundum'
