(09 Nov 2014, 11:01 am)Dan wrote In no way defending the driver but given the allocation of a double decker, I'd put money on the driver being late.
Especially with the traffic near Riverside Depot lately, it's so hard to keep to time on the X66. It's not often you see X66s regulated (unless it's the driver's very last run), so they just have to grin and bear it. Clearly some drivers have more difficulty than others with the former point - especially if it's down to a ticket machine issue! You can make up a bit of time by going on the Centrelink towards Gateshead but obviously if a Vyking decided to go down that route, it'd be converted to an open top.
Still think bus drivers aren't paid enough for the stress they have to go through...
It's probably not worth regulating them on the X66 with the short rotation time (32 minutes is it?) - you soon rack up enough to just drop a trip and carry on. Same happens on most short services, like our 7s with the traffic into Yarm where you can end up 40-50 mins late after 3 trips, on an hourly rotation you may as well just drop back 10 mins and start from there.