Re: RE: Go North East - Latest
(27 Dec 2013, 10:12 am)Dan wrote I agree.
Service information for Boxing Day was released quite a while ago. If I could prepare the journeys which I was going to make for my day of photography, then any member of the public could also refer to timetables for their journeys.
I've seen many complaints on Go North East's Facebook page today about the lack of a normal Monday to Friday bus service. One person even complained about having a weekly ticket which cost £21.80 and he was unable to use it this morning as no buses operated in his area before x time, so he had to pay someone £10 to get to work...
If that were me, I'd have checked online to see what the operation was going to be like prior to purchasing a ticket! You wouldn't buy an advance single ticket for a train if you couldn't get to the station on time, so what's the difference with buses?
Service information was given to people well in advance and throughout the day yesterday via announcements - anyone with an internet connection (whether it's on a mobile, tablet or laptop/PC) can check the website. Let's face it - if they can complain on a Facebook page, they can access the information for Boxing Day operations.
Despite this, I saw many people yesterday (including younger people who most definitely have access to the above devices) waiting around for buses and referring to the timetables at bus stops.
A young lad about the same age as me had waited for the 56 for an hour thinking it was a Sunday service, but the first one from Sunderland wasn't scheduled to come until 08:50am...
Rear advertisements have been placed on buses for the convenience of customers I gather, to alert them of operations around the Christmas/New Year period, notices have been pinned on the usual boards on-board buses, GNE's website has had the information available for quite some time and even their Social Media reps have been issuing the information for quite some time too...
...And for what purpose? Customers have ignored all of the above, and are still confused.
In my example, it was the 58 at Heworth.
The boards with all of the times of buses had the 58 down as 8, all of the Newcastle-bound services were down as using the stand the Washington-bound services use and vice versa... Drivers still used the same stands though!
Is this Twitter page manned by enthusiasts or an official Customer Services team? I ask because I've only ever seen enthusiasts discuss it, and I've not actually seen any announcements on-board Stagecoach buses with information about it. I can't find any mention of it on the Stagecoach website either.
If it's enthusiasts (or even drivers who are enthusiasts) which run it, it does not surprise me that someone was online yesterday or indeed Christmas Day.
Hear, hear!
GNE are light years ahead of many operators throughout the country, for both their operations and indeed their presence on the online platform.
Once they have a real time tracking app similar to Arriva's which is being rolled out at present, I really doubt there's much more they can do to improve other than longer hours (which were actually recently implemented).
When we had really bad snow earlier this year, I think I recall GNE being online until the very last bus of the night...
I thought the 56 was it's Sunday Services, sure it was running every 20 mins, but was being displayed as leaving Stand S(8/78 Stand I think)...
It makes me laugh when moan about Boxing Day Services, how did these people get to work last Boxing Day and the one before that, it will be the same next year and it is not like GNE decided at closing time on Christmas Eve 'I know, lets make peoples life a misery and put out a skeleton service, lets pile misery on them and challenge them to get anywhere' Information had been available for at least 3-4 Weeks, I had a leaflet about it in early December, so I planned what I needed to do, people who worked could have planned in advance as well, but some like to moan for moaning sake...
While there Social Media presence is a joke sometimes, but, GNE have to be commended for offering the service, and good how they stick by it when they can just as easy turn round and say 'enough is enough' and jack it all in because of peoples bitchiness and moans...End of the day, there Social Media is the front line and some people seem to forget there is not much CS can do about situations and are only going on what information comes down to them...
My only gripes about Boxing Day Services is that there is no 61, even though Dalton Park Sales were on, surely it could have interworked with the 2A as it is on Sundays or even interworked with the 60 and 42 i.e 60 Return Trip-42 Return Trip-61 Park Lane-Dalton Park Return Trip, In the end I walked from Murton to The Mallard to get the 60, at least I walked some of my Christmas Dinner off my guts...
Also I found it difficult finding the timetable for the resticted Service, in the end relying on thekeymobile and catch that bus