(24 Nov 2014, 1:31 pm)Dan wrote As someone who was previously less cynical about the consultation being held in Park Lane, I think it stands to reason that my negative opinions (having attended the consultation) are potentially less bias than what could have been expected from others...
For reasons unknown, Go North East did not turn up on time this morning. I'm not sure when the consultation team arrived, but it certainly wasn't before 08:10am, which is when I arrived travelling to school. The opinions of a large number of commuters were therefore potentially missed, and the audience of the consultation will be more limited now, I'd imagine...
I decided to attend the consultation during my lunch break instead. A vertical banner (not sure what they're called) was set up near Stand L in Park Lane, with two employees present. One employee (who is a regular face at publicity launches and such) was busy talking to someone, and another (Deptford-based) was at the table showing a Sunderland Councillor the proposed changes, ahead of a meeting next Thursday to make a final decision on the proposed route changes. It was good to have the employee from Sunderland present, as I'd guess he had a better local knowledge than the other employee possibly did.
Having arrived half way through the councillor's discussion with the Go North East employee, I managed to pick up a few things which I otherwise would not have done... After the councillor left, I was asked where I live, to which I responded 'Near the Stadium of Light', and I was told that there would be no changes to me other than the number of the service. The chat was all of 15-seconds in length, and I was extremely disappointed that there was no opportunity for me to go through the proposed route changes in full like the councillor did. I feel this was perhaps done to minimise the amount of irrelevant feedback which could have been gathered, though in the past (with printed leaflets), we've been able to see the full picture...
All in all, I was extremely disappointed with the consultation. I had no opportunity to give my feedback, despite there being forms on the table ready to be filled out... I shall be sending an e-mail to Customer Services tonight to voice my concerns with this method of consultation, as it really wasn't as good as I thought it potentially could have been.
- The 20/35 merge was expected, for the aforementioned suggestion of it increasing the likelihood of investment being viable (providing passenger numbers - and hence profit levels - increase). Reliability and lost mileage on these services isn't as bad as is being made out above, other than during peak times (when service 20 tends to struggle a little more).
- The 2A/2C / 42 merge wasn't as expected, though it's something I personally would like to see. Reliability is pretty solid during the day time and the majority of buses have time to lay over at either end of the route on services 2A/2C, so this would work well.
- Service 99 being curtailed - wasn't someone suggesting on Go North East's Facebook page that this service has full loads? Not impressed to see changes being made when very few customers from this route are going to be there to contribute.
- Service X36 having its frequency reduced comes as a surprise, as the loadings I have witnessed have been quite decent (albeit full of pensioners rather than fare-paying passengers).
- The 38 extending to Houghton-le-Spring / nPower replacing the 35A on an half-hourly frequency combined with the 238 (from what I could make out) isn't too bad...
20/35 sounds quite good but it will be a long route... could the current scanias cope unless new buses will be ordered for changes, for the 20.
20 - maybe new buses
35 - citaros
The 38 changes sounds decent, think parts of the current timetable are stupid...sure 1 part of the timetable is 20, 40 then nothing... why not have the full route 20 minutes, then have the 238 carry on from the 38 route -maybe fully cadet?
Service 99 -pointless just withdraw it!
How much will the PVR go down on the fast cats, just 1?, least it will have a spare!