(22 Aug 2021, 10:14 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote Assuming you actually find a bus that has any of them on board...I think there have been a grand total of two people finding one reported on here despite the hot air around these changes being fully supported by printed material. I finally did manage to get hold of one today - when the driver of a Voltra gave me their dog-eared copy as they hadn't seen any on the buses and there were of course none on theirs. This was after asking the driver of another service (which I won't identify) who was great and had a look for me and was really vocal (un-prompted other than me asking if they had a service change leaflet) about what they viewed as a disgraceful lack of customer info on board the vehicles. I was surprised they were so critical of the company, but can fully understand why given the multiple examples on here of being being unable to source either the changes booklet or any of the timetables - and they know they will be the ones getting it in the neck off the customers in less than a fortnight. Add to this that even the website still shows the old pdfs (if any at all) for some services (after changing the date) and from the outside looking in this does seem an amateurish attempt by GNE to communicate some fairly huge network changes.
How ridiculous.
Whilst not denying that there are a small number of things yet to be done, Go North East are doing way more than other operators would for these service changes. Are Stagecoach and Arriva producing paper timetable leaflets at all?!
A five-figure sum of these booklets were printed and made available on every bus in the fleet. I have mentioned previously that I know of enthusiasts taking not just one but several of these, and I have also spotted them for sale on eBay. It may be that there has also been a genuine higher demand for these than expected and perhaps Go North East ought to have ordered more, but in one breath we’re hearing a general opinion that this booklet is useless and full of corporate drivel, and in the next we’re seeing several comments that they’re difficult to get a hold of, so there’s clearly been some demand for them.
Enough posters were printed for every bus in the fleet, and every bus with a next stop announcement TFT monitor is also showing a notice. There are regular social media posts about the upcoming changes, and they have been on the website for weeks. The journey planner on the website/app and “live timetables” were updated back then, and PDFs of the timetables (which are proven to get a very low number of views on the website) are slowly being drip fed through once converted from print format to web format.
Not every timetable has been printed yet (it is peak holiday season across all industries) - those that have are distributed on buses already and are being followed up with subsequent print batches on a weekly basis. Go North East is working with Nexus to try and resurrect racks in bus stations but those discussions are still ongoing.
Not withstanding all that, there have been some pretty major last minute changes following further consultation with local authorities. Bearing in mind these changes have been known about at local authority officer level for some six months, and, contrary to comments on social media, there has been a massive amount of consultation with local authorities, politicians and other stakeholders, these changes were only being requested AFTER the registrations were submitted, Go North East is doing a pretty damn good job during trying times. It’s peak holiday season with many colleagues needing to cancel their holidays just to get this information out to customers in good time, as well as work bloody long (12-16 hour) days (and won’t get paid for these extra hours nor likely get the time back).
It takes roughly half a day to typeset a timetable, and probably another half a day to produce a map. It then takes an hour or two to proof-check the leaflet and its content (depending on how in depth you proof-check the times). Work technically can’t commence until after registrations have been submitted (although were in this instance given the sheer volume of changes), so I will let you do the maths of how many services are changing (and hence how much time this would take to do) vs the 56 days for the registration period.
In my opinion your comments are outlandish and in the main unfounded.
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