(17 Nov 2014, 3:32 pm)Drifter60 wrote I'm not sure, I think it stinks of not really wanting customers views. Usually the questionnaires would be on affected buses for a week or two, where most people who regularly use the bus would of been on at least once if not a few times. This then means everybody who takes an interest can fill in a leaflet.
Having one person in park lane, one day isn't really the best option in my opinion.
Mind you, GNE, are doing more than Other operators in relation to service changes.
I disagree entirely.
Having staff based in Park Lane where the majority (admittedly not all) of customers travel to and from for eight hours, including during peak times, suggests that the company is wanting to attract more feedback from customers. Whilst the online questionnaires proved to be unsuccessful due to anomalous results being gathered (perhaps from customers who don't necessarily use the services affected by a consultation a great deal), it is possible that not enough feedback was being gathered from customer consultations with printed leaflets that had to be returned to the company by post. It seems a bit time-consuming, in my opinion, for customers to pick up a leaflet on a bus, and for them to fill it out then go to their nearest post box to return it to the company. I know I'd be far more likely to fill in a leaflet if I was waiting for my bus, and I was given the opportunity to fill it out on the spot and return it to an employee face-to-face. If others feel the same way as me, it could be argued that the associated costs with printing out these customer consultation leaflets has proven to be too high for the results being yielded, which is why the company could be making alternative arrangements with regards to collecting data from customers.
The changes being made are as a result of suggestions made to the company by a large number of customers. Whilst some customers may agree with the service changes being proposed, others may not, and it's critical Go North East gets feedback so that they're not making a mistake by altering their services.
(17 Nov 2014, 3:35 pm)Michael wrote Really they should do it in 2 parts of park lane, next to greggs and where Stands A-H,J,K are.
If u go let us know what they planning... looking forward to seen these new links... Silverlink might be one of them...
(17 Nov 2014, 3:36 pm)Drifter60 wrote Do we have any idea what they are planning? Which routes are changing?
I personally think that Go North East employees will be based near Greggs.
I don't think information will be released on the public domain prior to the customer consultation taking place, but a week is not too long to wait. For the benefit of everyone on this forum, I will upload information to the forum next Monday.
(17 Nov 2014, 3:40 pm)Michael wrote No idea but it says new links so hopefully new services... wonder if any will drop in frequancy?
This also may give a hint if any Sunderland based services are getting new buses this year....
'New links' could just suggest that changes will be made to existing services to provide new links, rather than new services being introduced.
Service 29 is of a cross-city nature, similar to Stagecoach's routes in Sunderland, and it has proven to be commercially successful. A lot of passengers take advantage of being able to travel across the city on one bus opposed to connecting at a major hub (Park Lane in this instance), and perhaps the company could be seeking to implement this on other services in Sunderland too?
The Facebook post says that the company has plans to 'match the level of service we provide with the number of passengers travelling', which strongly suggests that the frequency of services will be altered to meet demand. Those services which are under-performing could be reduced in frequency, whilst others could be increased with the resources saved, if there is sufficient demand to justify this.