(17 Sep 2022, 8:16 pm)Malarkey wrote Noticed today some of these "Agency Drivers" that GNE have brought in to cover the additional contracts they are operating, most noticeably Metro Replacements 900/X900 are using Drivers from Abellio London as two of the drivers I seen today both were wearing Abellio uniform, must be costing Go North East a significant amount of money for their wages/accommodation for the next 3 months.
Elsewhere the 21/X21 is just an utter joke with the amount of Angel/XLines X21's parked up in Gateshead Interchange at various points of the day due to services being cut short at Gateshead, feel sorry for those who are then left like waiting excessive periods time to end up like a tinned sardine on a bus that is then way beyond capacity, echoing the points of others the timetables across multiple routes are just not fit for purpose as they don't have enough running time and layover periods are tighter than nuns you know what causing service cancellations left, right and centre as the drivers physically can't do anything to keep to time due to elements such as the A1 Works impacting the 21/X21 at Peak Times.
Don't even get me started on Riversides Depot Allocator.
It must be paying well though?
To tender for a taxpayer funded contract and then recruit drivers from elsewhere (even with any associated overheads) and make a loss... Well that's commercial suicide.
I'm sure everything is costed out well and GNE are making a fair few quid out of this arrangement.