(10 Mar 2015, 2:01 pm)Tommy_1581 wrote It's just a case of re routing the 10.

500 people? Like all them people are going to use said service. 

Look at the 34 (Arriva), they petition it to call at Cambois; every 90 minutes and then hourly. No soul uses that bus to go to Cambois and North Blyth. Waste of money.

Would be interesting to see what proportion of the population signed the petition.

I won't dig up the whole 'sampling' malarkey again, but operators have made changes based on a similar number and tell the world how good their bus service is, based on a survey of circa 1000 people .

(10 Mar 2015, 2:01 pm)Tommy_1581 wrote It's just a case of re routing the 10.

I think it's a little more than just that...

I think you meant the 10B.

Firstly, this would add about three miles to a round trip. At 12mph, that's 15 minutes; so that would need at least 1 additional bus on the PVR.

Next, there's the small matter of convincing local residents not to park their cars on the traffic calming islands (Google earth image of MPD on Broomhouse Road):



Then, rerouting the bus would HALVE the frequency of buses at the town's busiest stops on Front Street and at Waterworld.

Residents on Station Road would find their bus journey taking a further eight minutes as it loops round the town, and people at Low Prudhoe wouldn't have a bus to the Front Street.

Sadly, these things are never simple...

(10 Mar 2015, 1:36 pm)Andreos1 wrote http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk/news/prud...-1.1196244#

More than 500 people sign petition, calling on the return of the 604.

From looking at Google Maps, Passengers wanting to catch a 10 to Newcastle from Moor Road for example have to walk either to South Road an catch the 686 which runs on an Hourly basis through the area at "15 Minutes Past Each Hour" to Stonyflat Bank where they can catch the 10/10B and 11A or continue on walking down to South Road and getting on the 10 on Prudoe Front Street, or they can walk even further along front street and catch the 10B/11A also.

Far from ideal for the residents who live in that area at all, surely it cant be that hard for a Single Decker or a Double Decker to go along Redwell Road/South Road, looking at Google Maps it looks pretty similar to the Toonlink 31/32 and the Blaydon Racers going around the Housing Estates in Winlaton, could also put money on a Scholar Service or two using Deckers going around this area of Prudoe, would also put money on 5210 or one the Tynedale Express branded Solars having appeared on the 686 on a few occasions in the past also.

(10 Mar 2015, 2:37 pm)Malarkey wrote From looking at Google Maps, Passengers wanting to catch a 10 to Newcastle from Moor Road for example have to walk either to South Road an catch the 686 which runs on an Hourly basis through the area at "15 Minutes Past Each Hour" to Stonyflat Bank where they can catch the 10/10B and 11A or continue on walking down to South Road and getting on the 10 on Prudoe Front Street, or they can walk even further along front street and catch the 10B/11A also.

Far from ideal for the residents who live in that area at all, surely it cant be that hard for a Single Decker or a Double Decker to go along Redwell Road/South Road, looking at Google Maps it looks pretty similar to the Toonlink 31/32 and the Blaydon Racers going around the Housing Estates in Winlaton, could also put money on a Scholar Service or two using Deckers going around this area of Prudoe, would also put money on 5210 or one the Tynedale Express branded Solars having appeared on the 686 on a few occasions in the past also.

In the article, it mentioned the local circular service wasn't popular.
It begs the question as to whether NCC and GNE asked passengers if they wanted to faff on changing buses or if the choice was made for them.

The streamlined model, with buses following the same core route, has benefits, but in this case a whole estate, on a hill is missed out.

Rather than divert or extend an existing service, is it worth creating a new service, which complements the existing offer?
Or, because the fleet and workforce is a lot smaller than in years gone by - maybe this isn't possible?

(10 Mar 2015, 4:00 pm)Andreos1 wrote In the article, it mentioned the local circular service wasn't popular.
It begs the question as to whether NCC and GNE asked passengers if they wanted to faff on changing buses or if the choice was made for them.

The streamlined model, with buses following the same core route, has benefits, but in this case a whole estate, on a hill is missed out.

Rather than divert or extend an existing service, is it worth creating a new service, which complements the existing offer?
Or, because the fleet and workforce is a lot smaller than in years gone by - maybe this isn't possible?

Going off that I would think the choice was made for them and I would certainly say for that area of Prudoe a circular Service is best option (Service 686) as there doesnt appear to be a turning circle for a Bus the size of a Renown or B9TL to use, if one was to be created then it would have to be at the top of Moor Road near to Prudoe Hospital.

Stepping in as a moderator:
I have deleted the previous posts relating to users copying and pasting the fleet news from Go North East's website on to this forum.

Go North East's official fleet news has been posted on Monday mornings for years - on this forum and previous websites used for the discussion of Go North East news. It's only recently that users on this forum have become irritated by the news being posted. Might I add that Michael used to copy and paste the fleet news every Monday morning and nobody made posts against him in a derogatory manner? I understood the problem relating to users posting this information after someone else had already copied and pasted it from the website on a morning and I stepped in to prevent this; however, I do not understand the issue relating to the official confirmation after I (or other enthusiasts) have reported the news prior and the issue (at least in my eyes) is the comments being made after this has been done.

Some members of this forum are becoming increasingly bitchy and this is something I'd like to nip in the bud. I enjoy reading the discussion on this forum and the difference of opinion which leads to debates is great, but snide comments made against each other (or rather - specific users) is going to be off-putting to new users who sign up. I would also like to stop the back-seat moderating. We have a team of able moderators who are more than capable of dealing with issues which arise. If you have an issue with a post, use the report facility and the moderator(s) will use their best judgement to decide the best route to take as a solution.

If you'd like to discuss the matter further with me, we'll do it off the public domain via the PM system.

Moving on, and a further vehicle arrived at Saltmeadows for repaint into Go North East's corporate livery this morning in the form of Washington's former Go-Ahead London Central Volvo B7TL/Plaxton President PVL13, numbered 6013 (V313 LGC) in the Go North East fleet.

Rapid progress is being made with the removal of the "Northern" name from the fleet. There are now 107 vehicles in the fleet which carry Go North East's corporate livery, while 96 vehicles presently retain "Northern" branding. With new vehicles just around the corner, expect the amount of "Northern" branded vehicles to start to decrease at an even faster rate.

Also worth noting that white route numbers are returning to the streets of Sunderland and Newcastle - courtesy of citaro5284 and yours truly! As depicted by 6096 below:
Go North East: 6096 / NL63YHZ by danielgrahamm, on Flickr

(10 Mar 2015, 5:34 pm)Dan wrote Also worth noting that white route numbers are returning to the streets of Sunderland and Newcastle - courtesy of citaro5284 and yours truly! As depicted by 6096 below:
Go North East: 6096 / NL63YHZ by danielgrahamm, on Flickr

Just like the X1 

(10 Mar 2015, 7:03 pm)RM2186 wrote Just like the X1 

Fingers crossed hopefully like a few more - if citaro5284 lets me change a few of the current destinations with coloured route numbers!  
If we manage to get the via points removed as the bus gets past that location, would be a perfect opportunity to change the route number colour at the same time.

Think it works really well with certain bus colours. Don't think it'd work on the really light colours, but the white destinations look brilliant on the darker coloured buses. Don't think it'd work so well on the silver Mercs on the 61, as an example, as you need the darker coloured square to make the number stand out.

Personal preference, but I do prefer the ones with the coloured background.

However, the 56 stands out much more with it's white number back.

(10 Mar 2015, 7:10 pm)Dan wrote Fingers crossed hopefully like a few more - if citaro5284 lets me change a few of the current destinations with coloured route numbers!  
If we manage to get the via points removed as the bus gets past that location, would be a perfect opportunity to change the route number colour at the same time.

Think it works really well with certain bus colours. Don't think it'd work on the really light colours, but the white destinations look brilliant on the darker coloured buses. Don't think it'd work so well on the silver Mercs on the 61, as an example, as you need the darker coloured square to make the number stand out.

Could try a red background with a white number for all unbranded services, as the current dull orange looks horrible next to the bright text.   A Yellow number may look tidy when operating scholars services, or for Q1/Q2 when using an orbit.

I think that all services should have a coloured number, regardless if the usual allocation doesn't.  ie Fab57 volvo are plain orange, but if a spare bus with a coloured destination is used, it should have a blue background and yellow number.

(10 Mar 2015, 8:07 pm)citaro5284 wrote Anyone notice that the GNE fleet list now shows vehicles fitted with Next Stop Announcements

I haven't checked this week, haven't had the chance but now i do  

Rarely check if it I'm honest. NEB one is mobile friendly, so a winner for me.

(10 Mar 2015, 8:07 pm)citaro5284 wrote Anyone notice that the GNE fleet list now shows vehicles fitted with Next Stop Announcements

Does it mean that the units are fitted, or fitted and work.  (not sure if 5386 works, but did not here anything this morning).

Fleetlist still shows incorrect ramps on 4932/33/38/40/41/4967/5218 & 5228.  They are manual.

4941 is still shown as tacho fitted.

5332 is shown as Blaydon Racer.

Does anyone know if the 40 changes to the 80?

(11 Mar 2015, 10:47 am)Davie wrote Does anyone know if the 40 changes to the 80?

I don't know the ins and outs but yeah the 40 inter works with the 41 and the 80

(11 Mar 2015, 12:42 pm)Wellsey18 wrote I don't know the ins and outs but yeah the 40 inter works with the 41 and the 80

Cheers

Does anyone know when both of the GNE apps will get updated..its still showing the 2C, 29/29A/35B/C, 42 and the 71..still has some services down as old brands....

Edit: Service 36 doesn't even show up on them....

Any thoughts or ideas on 4954 getting LED displays?
Not sure if any others of the new purple Solars have them, but it looks tatty compared to those with LED's.

Two repaints in less than a year - would have been the ideal opportunity to replace, presuming spares were available.

(11 Mar 2015, 10:47 am)Davie wrote Does anyone know if the 40 changes to the 80?

Works something like:

80 - North Shields-Wallsend
41 - Wallsend-Hadrian Park-Wallsend
40 - Wallsend-Hadrian Park
41 - Hadrian Park-Wallsend
40 - Wallsend-Hadrian Park-Wallsend
80 - Wallsend - North Shields 

(11 Mar 2015, 3:50 pm)Tom wrote Works something like:

80 - North Shields-Wallsend
41 - Wallsend-Hadrian Park-Wallsend
40 - Wallsend-Hadrian Park
41 - Hadrian Park-Wallsend
40 - Wallsend-Hadrian Park-Wallsend
80 - Wallsend - North Shields 

Thanks Tom 

May be worth arranging somebody to have a look on the floor downstairs of 3832 - some idiots cracked an egg by throwing it and it went everywhere. The poor things did try to clean it up with tissues (and then throwing them out the window) but i doubt they would have done a brilliant job. It's up at Consett now i believe though.

(11 Mar 2015, 4:51 pm)Robert wrote May be worth arranging somebody to have a look on the floor downstairs of 3832 - some idiots cracked an egg by throwing it and it went everywhere. The poor things did try to clean it up with tissues (and then throwing them out the window) but i doubt they would have done a brilliant job. It's up at Consett now i believe though.

It needn't be arranged - buses are cleaned each evening when they return to the depot.

Whatever happened to service 307, I haven't seen that service for months. Did it get withdrawn?

(11 Mar 2015, 6:03 pm)Davie wrote Whatever happened to service 307, I haven't seen that service for months. Did it get withdrawn?

Aye, the Arriva service 51 took all of the passengers.

(11 Mar 2015, 6:07 pm)Tom wrote Aye, the Arriva service 51 took all of the passengers.

Ahh right thanks Tom.

The 307 runs 1 journey per way to and from Newcastle. On another note, will 6116 or 6117 be getting a repaint when the new Flywheels are fitted?

Forgot to mention earlier, one of the Withdrawn Great Park and Ride Solar Fusions is parked up around the back of Saltmeadows Road Depot, anyone know which one it is, seen it as was passing on the 93 this afternoon.

Is 3814 still on loan to Washington Depot, if so what route is it on, or has another Vehicle been transferred over instead.

(12 Mar 2015, 12:44 pm)Malarkey wrote Is 3814 still on loan to Washington Depot, if so what route is it on, or has another Vehicle been transferred over instead.

It has returned to Stanley, and I am not aware of any further vehicles transferring to Stanley on loan.