(10 Jun 2022, 9:17 am)Ambassador wrote GNE: The 25 is commercially unviable - nobody is using it!

Also GNE: So if we cancel the 21.25 and 23.10 that means if you're out and about you either catch the 22.20 home (and even the oldies aren't finising their pints by then) or erm...

Passengers: never runs that 25, so unreliable - should we just book a taxi Dave?

GNE : Why is nobody using our buses?! Tell you what...lets cancel the last 28A home too and then ask the council for some money to run it!

Same with the 55 & 8. Especially when it isn't even on the website

(10 Jun 2022, 9:17 am)Ambassador wrote GNE: The 25 is commercially unviable - nobody is using it!

Also GNE: So if we cancel the 21.25 and 23.10 that means if you're out and about you either catch the 22.20 home (and even the oldies aren't finising their pints by then) or erm...

Passengers: never runs that 25, so unreliable - should we just book a taxi Dave?

GNE : Why is nobody using our buses?! Tell you what...lets cancel the last 28A home too and then ask the council for some money to run it!

Sounds like you're preparing a scenario to provide an example of how you could be an asset to the consulting team at 'Shyster Solutions'.

Haven't checked, but guessing the 4 is affected by driver shortages today. 
That or there's a load of spares out. 
5 (yes 5) currently parked up at The Galleries. There's not enough space in the northbound bay, so one is sticking out on to the exit to the bus station.

(10 Jun 2022, 3:34 pm)Andreos1 wrote Haven't checked, but guessing the 4 is affected by driver shortages today. 
That or there's a load of spares out. 
5 (yes 5) currently parked up at The Galleries. There's not enough space in the northbound bay, so one is sticking out on to the exit to the bus station.

Five is too many.

You only need four in a row to win at Connections 4 (from MG Games).

(10 Jun 2022, 3:45 pm)MurdnunoC wrote Five is too many.

You only need four in a row to win at Connections 4 (from MG Games).

They weren't in a row unfortunately.
But I like what you did there!

(10 Jun 2022, 3:34 pm)Andreos1 wrote Haven't checked, but guessing the 4 is affected by driver shortages today. 
That or there's a load of spares out. 
5 (yes 5) currently parked up at The Galleries. There's not enough space in the northbound bay, so one is sticking out on to the exit to the bus station.

Noticed that when I was over there about an hour ago. Must have been 10+ buses in total. 

I wonder if there's an option to move to the Washington Galleries outstation when Chester-le-Street closes?

(10 Jun 2022, 4:34 pm)Adrian wrote Noticed that when I was over there about an hour ago. Must have been 10+ buses in total. 

I wonder if there's an option to move to the Washington Galleries outstation when Chester-le-Street closes?

Aye, probably that number. To be fair, I think there was one JH decker parked up. They weren't all abandoned GNE vehicles or Mercs.

(10 Jun 2022, 5:21 pm)Andreos1 wrote Aye, probably that number. To be fair, I think there was one JH decker parked up. They weren't all abandoned GNE vehicles or Mercs.

Yeah, the JH decker was in excess of the number I quoted.

Galleries management probably need to do something about that, as it's getting a bit daft now. It prevents people being picked up/dropped off at the bus station.

(10 Jun 2022, 5:30 pm)Adrian wrote Yeah, the JH decker was in excess of the number I quoted.

Galleries management probably need to do something about that, as it's getting a bit daft now. It prevents people being picked up/dropped off at the bus station.

I always thought cars werent allowed to drop off or pick up at the top.
Its also a fire evac point from the bus station (not sure if that makes any difference)

(10 Jun 2022, 6:06 pm)ASX_Terranova wrote I always thought cars werent allowed to drop off or pick up at the top.
Its also a fire evac point from the bus station (not sure if that makes any difference)

There's double yellow lines down, but as it's a private and unadopted road, they're unenforceable. The same applies for the bus only restriction through the bus station and the bus link next to the police station. It's more to act as a deterrent for parking and rat-running by the landowner (Galleries/Prudential). Drop offs and pick ups have happened there for decades though - even when the old bus station was there.

Shortages out of CLS seem somewhat underestimated today.

Left the car at home and waited 30 mins at 7am for a 21. 4 weren’t tracking and the obviously two turned up. Packed,

Heading back home this afternoon there were equally huge gaps and it appears lots of Durham runs were cut with my 16.12 ex Newcastle pulling into stops and apologising there’s no drivers for Durham as it’s tracking as a Durham bus ex Newcastle buy curtailing at CLS.

Yet nothing on cancellations

(14 Jun 2022, 3:38 pm)Ambassador wrote Shortages out of CLS seem somewhat underestimated today.

Left the car at home and waited 30 mins at 7am for a 21. 4 weren’t tracking and the obviously two turned up. Packed,

Heading back home this afternoon there were equally huge gaps and it appears lots of Durham runs were cut with my 16.12 ex Newcastle pulling into stops and apologising there’s no drivers for Durham as it’s tracking as a Durham bus ex Newcastle buy curtailing at CLS.

Yet nothing on cancellations

The services were an absolute farce yesterday as well,

I had to use a few 21's as multiple trips on the 25 were cancelled (including one with no notice of a cancellation anywhere), I ended up with a driver who seemed to do his best to run late presumably in the hope of being turned at Gateshead which sure enough happened and were made to get onto another 21 which didn't go into Eldon Square and booted the passengers off at the bottom of Percy Street where the X63 stops and bus went off NIS.

For added fun heading home, website showed a different X21 trip as starting from CLS instead of Newcastle than what happened in reality.

(14 Jun 2022, 3:38 pm)Ambassador wrote Shortages out of CLS seem somewhat underestimated today.

Left the car at home and waited 30 mins at 7am for a 21. 4 weren’t tracking and the obviously two turned up. Packed,

Heading back home this afternoon there were equally huge gaps and it appears lots of Durham runs were cut with my 16.12 ex Newcastle pulling into stops and apologising there’s no drivers for Durham as it’s tracking as a Durham bus ex Newcastle buy curtailing at CLS.

Yet nothing on cancellations

Wonder if the sickness at Chester has suddenly shot through the roof.
I'd imagine any goodwill and loyalty towards their employer has vanished as quickly as the queue for sick notes grew.

(14 Jun 2022, 7:01 pm)Andreos1 wrote Wonder if the sickness at Chester has suddenly shot through the roof.
I'd imagine any goodwill and loyalty towards their employer has vanished as quickly as the queue for sick notes grew.

never even thought about that…be interesting to see how many Durham runs are cut when riverside kicks in.

(14 Jun 2022, 3:38 pm)Ambassador wrote Shortages out of CLS seem somewhat underestimated today.

Left the car at home and waited 30 mins at 7am for a 21. 4 weren’t tracking and the obviously two turned up. Packed,

Heading back home this afternoon there were equally huge gaps and it appears lots of Durham runs were cut with my 16.12 ex Newcastle pulling into stops and apologising there’s no drivers for Durham as it’s tracking as a Durham bus ex Newcastle buy curtailing at CLS.

Yet nothing on cancellations

Cancellations at CLS have been a lot higher than the short notice list plus what’s on Twitter for a few weeks now - consecutive journeys cancelled seem to be creeping back in again, only 1 out of 3 buses running on the 34 yesterday afternoon by the look of it. Looks like 2 cancelled today as well 1558, 1618 from Waldridge Park.

I wonder what the difficulty is in getting the list updated? If the message (in the app too!) is to check the website for short notice cancellations, then there needs to be a mechanism in place whereby this is constantly updated.

Perhaps a 'twitter style' feed would be better than having to review whole lists though, in fear your journey has been added in during the day.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

(15 Jun 2022, 8:16 am)Adrian wrote I wonder what the difficulty is in getting the list updated? If the message (in the app too!) is to check the website for short notice cancellations, then there needs to be a mechanism in place whereby this is constantly updated.

Perhaps a 'twitter style' feed would be better than having to review whole lists though, in fear your journey has been added in during the day.

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Yeah especially for journeys not tracking on the app already - the data is there.

Obviously last minute challenges occur and that was solved in my example by a service focused driver letting passengers know.

(14 Jun 2022, 7:01 pm)Andreos1 wrote Wonder if the sickness at Chester has suddenly shot through the roof.
I'd imagine any goodwill and loyalty towards their employer has vanished as quickly as the queue for sick notes grew.

I did hear that Chester drivers who transferred to an alternative depot and stayed for 3 months were offered a financial incentive, though I've no idea how true that is.  Presumably to save a mass exodus.

(15 Jun 2022, 11:48 am)Chris 1 wrote I did hear that Chester drivers who transferred to an alternative depot and stayed for 3 months were offered a financial incentive, though I've no idea how true that is.  Presumably to save a mass exodus.

The problem with giving drivers £xxxx if they stay y months, is that in month y+1 you tend to get an exodus as they’ve had y months to find another job.

The Go North East 25 is a bit thin on the ground today, three consecutive departures from Newcastle cancelled this afternoon 1525, 1605, 1635:

From Newcastle: 07:15, 08:55, 16:05, 17:35, 20:25. The 09:18 journey will start from Chester-le-Street at 10:16, the 15:25 journey will start from Chester-le-Street at 16:17, the 16:35 journey will start from Chester-le-Street at 17:27.
From Langley Park: 06:27, 07:13, 10:21, 17:29, 19:04. The 13:51 journey will only run as far as Chester-le-Street (arriving at 14:20), the 14:21 journey will only run as far as Chester-le-Street (arriving at 14:50), the 14:54 journey will only run as far as Chester-le-Street (arriving at 15:23), the 15:54 journey will only run as far as Chester-le-Street (arriving at 16:23).
From Chester-le-Street to Newcastle: 06:17

(16 Jun 2022, 8:37 am)busmanT wrote The Go North East 25 is a bit thin on the ground today, three consecutive departures from Newcastle cancelled this afternoon 1525, 1605, 1635:

From Newcastle: 07:15, 08:55, 16:05, 17:35, 20:25. The 09:18 journey will start from Chester-le-Street at 10:16, the 15:25 journey will start from Chester-le-Street at 16:17, the 16:35 journey will start from Chester-le-Street at 17:27.
From Langley Park: 06:27, 07:13, 10:21, 17:29, 19:04. The 13:51 journey will only run as far as Chester-le-Street (arriving at 14:20), the 14:21 journey will only run as far as Chester-le-Street (arriving at 14:50), the 14:54 journey will only run as far as Chester-le-Street (arriving at 15:23), the 15:54 journey will only run as far as Chester-le-Street (arriving at 16:23).
From Chester-le-Street to Newcastle: 06:17

Two of the commuter runs into Newcastle cancelled too. Maybe services like the 25 are an easy target not to cover now, as they're not seen as doing 'well' financially, but will they be going forward? 

I suppose the downside of contracting/providing secured services, is that the local authority will normally want some form of financial compensation or service credits where the service isn't ran. There's no where near that level of scrutiny on commercial services, as passengers are very much without a collective voice.

Also for the third day in a row, the 17.39 #50 from Durham has been cancelled, which is really poor. I normally use that or the one an hour earlier, and it's generally the same people on board each day, so it just goes to show that in doing so they're impacting the same users over and over.

(16 Jun 2022, 9:22 am)Adrian wrote Two of the commuter runs into Newcastle cancelled too. Maybe services like the 25 are an easy target not to cover now, as they're not seen as doing 'well' financially, but will they be going forward? 

I suppose the downside of contracting/providing secured services, is that the local authority will normally want some form of financial compensation or service credits where the service isn't ran. There's no where near that level of scrutiny on commercial services, as passengers are very much without a collective voice.

Also for the third day in a row, the 17.39 #50 from Durham has been cancelled, which is really poor. I normally use that or the one an hour earlier, and it's generally the same people on board each day, so it just goes to show that in doing so they're impacting the same users over and over.

Another really common one is the 19:36 61 from Sunderland that basically is cancelled all the time.

CLS is horrific yet again, there’s a 35 minute gap at Gateshead and it was just as bad this morning,

There’s two angels parked up at Gateshead but nothing on the cancellations. They’re just outright lying now

(16 Jun 2022, 9:22 am)Adrian wrote Two of the commuter runs into Newcastle cancelled too. Maybe services like the 25 are an easy target not to cover now, as they're not seen as doing 'well' financially, but will they be going forward? 

I suppose the downside of contracting/providing secured services, is that the local authority will normally want some form of financial compensation or service credits where the service isn't ran. There's no where near that level of scrutiny on commercial services, as passengers are very much without a collective voice.

Also for the third day in a row, the 17.39 #50 from Durham has been cancelled, which is really poor. I normally use that or the one an hour earlier, and it's generally the same people on board each day, so it just goes to show that in doing so they're impacting the same users over and over.

It certainly felt that way to me when I used the services and viewed the cancellation list on Monday, list included multiple trips on services 25 & 28/28A binned off, yet not a single planned cancellation was listed for the 21 or 34... in the addition multiple trips on services 8 & X21 were fully cancelled or partially cancelled on top of that including consecutive evening trips on the former.

The 8 was hit hard again this morning with a number of morning journeys not operating or only doing the Stanley to CLS section.

---

(16 Jun 2022, 12:48 pm)Ambassador wrote CLS is horrific yet again, there’s a 35 minute gap at Gateshead and it was just as bad this morning,

There’s two angels parked up at Gateshead but nothing on the cancellations. They’re just outright lying now

They're heavily pushing the narrative of roadworks in Newcastle for disruption causing that, or at least they were the other day.

(16 Jun 2022, 9:22 am)Adrian wrote Two of the commuter runs into Newcastle cancelled too. Maybe services like the 25 are an easy target not to cover now, as they're not seen as doing 'well' financially, but will they be going forward? 

I suppose the downside of contracting/providing secured services, is that the local authority will normally want some form of financial compensation or service credits where the service isn't ran. There's no where near that level of scrutiny on commercial services, as passengers are very much without a collective voice.

Also for the third day in a row, the 17.39 #50 from Durham has been cancelled, which is really poor. I normally use that or the one an hour earlier, and it's generally the same people on board each day, so it just goes to show that in doing so they're impacting the same users over and over.

Was just thinking the same. If GNE do get contracts for the 25,28 and others they’d surely have to put more emphasis on making sure they run. Which I’m not sure how they’ll manage it, without another service like the 21s for instance taking even more of a hit instead. I wonder if GNE don’t get these contracts, it’s because they don’t want them - without the extra secured work they’ll be in a better position to withdraw older vehicles, close CLS depot and reduce short notice cancellations elsewhere. 

It’s been mentioned about the 8 being cancelled in the evening? Happy to stand corrected, it’s a recent development the 8 running late into the evening? And I’m guessing it’ll be one of a few evening services running without subsidy. Even services like the 60 have secured parts. I believe, DCC still pays for the later evening Parkside to Seaham runs. So I’m guessing it’s just complete coincidence that the 8 is taking a hit.

(16 Jun 2022, 2:28 pm)Drifter60 wrote Was just thinking the same. If GNE do get contracts for the 25,28 and others they’d surely have to put more emphasis on making sure they run. Which I’m not sure how they’ll manage it, without another service like the 21s for instance taking even more of a hit instead. I wonder if GNE don’t get these contracts, it’s because they don’t want them - without the extra secured work they’ll be in a better position to withdraw older vehicles, close CLS depot and reduce short notice cancellations elsewhere. 

It’s been mentioned about the 8 being cancelled in the evening? Happy to stand corrected, it’s a recent development the 8 running late into the evening? And I’m guessing it’ll be one of a few evening services running without subsidy. Even services like the 60 have secured parts. I believe, DCC still pays for the later evening Parkside to Seaham runs. So I’m guessing it’s just complete coincidence that the 8 is taking a hit.

I don't think the 61/60 are covered by DCC. 

I can't imagine many others aren't subsided on a night.

(16 Jun 2022, 3:01 pm)Unber43 wrote I don't think the 61/60 are covered by DCC. 

I can't imagine many others aren't subsided on a night.

From the list I've seen, the 60 is still supported between Parkside and Seaham on Monday to Saturday evenings and the 61 has a some trips on Saturday mornings that are DCC supported.

Quite a lot of the evening services in County Durham are supported at both GNE & ANE, some of GNE's actually been Monday to Thursday whilst running commercially on Friday & Saturday nights.

(16 Jun 2022, 4:08 pm)Jimmi wrote From the list I've seen, the 60 is still supported between Parkside and Seaham on Monday to Saturday evenings and the 61 has a some trips on Saturday mornings that are DCC supported.

Quite a lot of the evening services in County Durham are supported at both GNE & ANE, some of GNE's actually been Monday to Thursday whilst running commercially on Friday & Saturday nights.

nexus gives funding to GNE for the 20 between Sunderland & South Shields on a evening Monday-Thursday

The 65 service has been "off timetable" since about 12pm. Buses running 10-20-35 mins late. 


After today would it not be worth the changeover location changing to Seaham so the change over can take a "big bus" incase the 65 is late so they can take it and put it back on time, instead of it running 35 mins late, changing at Hetton and there isn't really anywhere on the 65 to save a lot of time except starting at Hetton

Can anyone confirm if the X20s are meant to be leaving Ashington for Newcastle at xx47 past every hour?

The past three departures have been 30 mins later than that and the driver of the journey I was on was in no rush to change over adding another 5+ mins to the delay...