How many CLS drivers ended up moving to Riverside?
I've barely seen any of the usual faces on the X21 since it moved

Very few, hence the new faces.

Most went to Washington, which is why additional work (25, 28/29, 58) transferred here.

How many CLS drivers ended up moving to Riverside?
I've barely seen any of the usual faces on the X21 since it moved

10 or 11 as far as I'm aware, most drivers on 21 were moves off the 6 & 12 rota it think

Very few, hence the new faces.

Most went to Washington, which is why additional work (25, 28/29, 58) transferred here.

Is there a reason the X21 wasn't transferred to Washington with the drivers?

Is there a reason the X21 wasn't transferred to Washington with the drivers?

Efficiency and cost. It's more efficient to run the X21 from Riverside (with reliefs at Gateshead).

The remote reliefs are presumably factored into the tender price of the 25 and 28/29, and the 58 is a short-term thing (will eventually return to Riverside) until the staffing situation improves at Riverside.

Efficiency and cost. It's more efficient to run the X21 from Riverside (with reliefs at Gateshead).

The remote reliefs are presumably factored into the tender price of the 25 and 28/29, and the 58 is a short-term thing (will eventually return to Riverside) until the staffing situation improves at Riverside.

One thing that annoys me is that 21/X21 change when coming back from newcastle southbound. 

Why not just do it when its heading to newcaslte then they don't really need to waist time putting their code in, another thing is changing drivers going to Newcastle imo is better from a passenger perspective rather than waiting for two 21's then they just say Gateshead on the Display seems a bit pointless. Same for the 20, they now change drivers at Stand L, whereas if they changed from Stand E?, they could just but their code in when in Park Lane, instead of the driver having to put his code in for the 5 min journey between Stand E & Stand L.

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10 or 11 as far as I'm aware, most drivers on 21 were moves off the 6 & 12 rota it think

As Storkx (sorry if I got the name wrong) said I wouldn't want to drive down the A1 daily to work, especially with all the traffic.

Does anyone know the Rota pattern for Gateshead now?

5491 on the 21
5497 and 5488 on the 57

There was indeed. Believe it was 6186.

Whilst 3 Angel branded streetdecks sat parked up at Gateshead Interchange which is now challenging heaven in the most amount of angels sitting around stakes.

I have noticed a lot of new drivers on the Angel lately and none of them seem to know the stop names (or passengers names for them) though it’s not helping when halfway through a run my CLS bound chariot is told he’s now going to Durham…

To be fair I've been driving for 5 and a half years now and I still don't know half of the street names passengers ask for. Even in my home town, I swear they make half of them up.

One thing that annoys me is that 21/X21 change when coming back from newcastle southbound. 

Why not just do it when its heading to newcaslte then they don't really need to waist time putting their code in, another thing is changing drivers going to Newcastle imo is better from a passenger perspective rather than waiting for two 21's then they just say Gateshead on the Display seems a bit pointless. Same for the 20, they now change drivers at Stand L, whereas if they changed from Stand E?, they could just but their code in when in Park Lane, instead of the driver having to put his code in for the 5 min journey between Stand E & Stand L.

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As Storkx (sorry if I got the name wrong) said I wouldn't want to drive down the A1 daily to work, especially with all the traffic.

Does anyone know the Rota pattern for Gateshead now?

21 and X21 are on their own rota (silver) with reliefs taking place at Gateshead Metro. 10 and 12 are also on their own rota (red) with reliefs at the Metrocentre. 53/54/Q3 are their own rota. Everything else which is operated from Gateshead Metro is on the main rota (green). Then you have miscellaneous duties such as splits which cover scholars and workers contracts.

One thing that annoys me is that 21/X21 change when coming back from newcastle southbound. 

Why not just do it when its heading to newcaslte then they don't really need to waist time putting their code in, another thing is changing drivers going to Newcastle imo is better from a passenger perspective rather than waiting for two 21's then they just say Gateshead on the Display seems a bit pointless. Same for the 20, they now change drivers at Stand L, whereas if they changed from Stand E?, they could just but their code in when in Park Lane, instead of the driver having to put his code in for the 5 min journey between Stand E & Stand L.

You realise drivers would have to log in to Ticketer northbound too, don't you? 

People may want to catch the bus at Gateshead, so they'll need to be logged in for that alone. Aside from that, important messages are often communicated on Ticketer which could be essential to read ahead of that section of the journey. It's really not a long process to log into Ticketer, and if a driver is slow at it they're not going to get quicker on the other side of the road.

You realise drivers would have to log in to Ticketer northbound too, don't you? 

People may want to catch the bus at Gateshead, so they'll need to be logged in for that alone. Aside from that, important messages are often communicated on Ticketer which could be essential to read ahead of that section of the journey. It's really not a long process to log into Ticketer, and if a driver is slow at it they're not going to get quicker on the other side of the road.

In my experience they normally don't change drivers till after that.  While I get it might not be quicker at the other side of the road, its better than the 21 going into newcastle to only go to Gateshead then go NIS

6052 appears to have been on the X21 today as well

8801 doing rounds on the X21

8801 doing rounds on the X21

No it isn't.

The bustimes sighting of 8801 is actually correctly branded 6314.

No it isn't.

The bustimes sighting of 8801 is actually correctly branded 6314.

So it's an Xlines bus with a Voltra ticket machine? Uh

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So it's an Xlines bus with a Voltra ticket machine? Uh

Nevermind

8801 doing rounds on the X21

Its was dual tracking.

Its was dual tracking.

Sounds painful that like......

6006 on the 21

A pre Deltic hour in Durham yesterday found these two enjoying foreigners.

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Not exactly odd, since it no longer has a route… but Blonde solo 664 was parked at Seaham tonight. Not exactly sure what it was doing there at circa 8pm, doesn’t seem to have been on a route.

Not exactly odd, since it no longer has a route… but Blonde solo 664 was parked at Seaham tonight. Not exactly sure what it was doing there at circa 8pm, doesn’t seem to have been on a route.

It's for 65 driver changeovers.

678 - 25
679 - 28

One of the Connection 4 on X20
Berries on the X6/201/209/210 (wonder how it will deal with Peterlee not sure how tight their streets are)

Theres streetlites and a 4 merc on the 50
Peterlee Purples on the 4

678 - 25
679 - 28

GNE's Solo allocations have been all over the place lately.. There's been Graphite, Pinks, AD122 and Venture Solos in Cheater-le-Street over the past two days alone.

It's for 65 driver changeovers.

At 8pm at night? I did think of that after I posted but thought they wouldn’t be driver change for the last short run of the day.

At 8pm at night? I did think of that after I posted but thought they wouldn’t be driver change for the last short run of the day

Well, the only other reason is if the bus needed to be replaced or a new ticket machine was needed but I'm pretty sure that the 20:25 from Seaham to Hetton does change driver.

One of the Connection 4 on X20
Berries on the X6/201/209/210 (wonder how it will deal with Peterlee not sure how tight their streets are)

Is that not a case of dual tracking on bustimes? It seems to be in Silksworth and Horden at the same time…

5333 on X1 yesterday- https://flic.kr/p/2nPeqdo

5331 on X1 yesterday- https://flic.kr/p/2nP86H7

5333 on 4 today- https://flic.kr/p/2nPsBN2

CityRider on the 39A this afternoon? Didn’t catch the fleet number unfortunately. To say the least it caught me by surprise.

678 on the 50