Blyth Regulation
Blyth Regulation
Is anyone doing this anymore? I luckily don't need to use buses today but it seems there's some thick job doing it today.
X7 Newcastle Departures: 17:15
X8 Newcastle Departures: 17:30, 18:05 (+20), 18:45
X9 Newcastle Departures: 17:53
I'm not an expert at this stuff but it's not rocket science to divert the 18:05 X8 onto the X7 and there's absolute no excuse using driving hours etc.
Absolute appalling service again. Unless things improve fast the X7/X8/X9 are doomed when the new railway comes along as they're unusable.
Least we have Gateshead Central Taxis who can actually run a reliable bus service with modern buses which is about as ironic as it can get I'm saying that.
(14 Sep 2023, 6:09 pm)Storx I'm not an expert at this stuff but it's not rocket science to divert the 18:05 X8 onto the X7 and there's absolute no excuse using driving hours etc.
(14 Sep 2023, 6:26 pm)mb134 Are there not driver changeovers at Cramlington, which wouldn't be achievable on an X7?
(14 Sep 2023, 6:26 pm)mb134 Are there not driver changeovers at Cramlington, which wouldn't be achievable on an X7?
(14 Sep 2023, 6:30 pm)Storx Don't believe so on that board, believe it's an end of day shift and goes off when it gets to Blyth. For example yesterday - https://bustimes.org/vehicles/anum-ane-1...2023-09-14
(14 Sep 2023, 6:30 pm)Storx Don't believe so on that board, believe it's an end of day shift and goes off when it gets to Blyth. For example yesterday - https://bustimes.org/vehicles/anum-ane-1...2023-09-14
(14 Sep 2023, 6:34 pm)mb134 Is it not possible one of the evening 43 duties starts by doing that to town and back to Cramlington, and another Cramlington shift takes the X8 back to Blyth?
Obviously it could just be them not shifting the X8 onto the X7, but there could be an actual reason for it. I've noticed a few times during the day X9/10/11s have started tracking from Cramlington using a bus that had been on the 43/44/45.
(14 Sep 2023, 6:34 pm)mb134 Is it not possible one of the evening 43 duties starts by doing that to town and back to Cramlington, and another Cramlington shift takes the X8 back to Blyth?
Obviously it could just be them not shifting the X8 onto the X7, but there could be an actual reason for it. I've noticed a few times during the day X9/10/11s have started tracking from Cramlington using a bus that had been on the 43/44/45.
According to the Wideopen and Seaton Burn Facebook page the Weetslade councillors are in discussions with Nexus about the poor service. Sadly I don't think that's going to help them.
Out of interest, does anyone know why 7546 spent the day on the 44/45/47 yesterday? It was back in Ashington today.
(14 Sep 2023, 8:54 pm)Shrek According to the Wideopen and Seaton Burn Facebook page the Weetslade councillors are in discussions with Nexus about the poor service. Sadly I don't think that's going to help them.
Out of interest, does anyone know why 7546 spent the day on the 44/45/47 yesterday? It was back in Ashington today.
(14 Sep 2023, 8:54 pm)Shrek According to the Wideopen and Seaton Burn Facebook page the Weetslade councillors are in discussions with Nexus about the poor service. Sadly I don't think that's going to help them.
Out of interest, does anyone know why 7546 spent the day on the 44/45/47 yesterday? It was back in Ashington today.
(14 Sep 2023, 9:15 pm)Storx I don't even think the 43/44/45 have been that bad recently have they?
There's a few 43/44/45/47 boards at Ashington btw. 7557/7558/7560/7562 are meant to be on it.
(14 Sep 2023, 9:15 pm)Storx I don't even think the 43/44/45 have been that bad recently have they?
There's a few 43/44/45/47 boards at Ashington btw. 7557/7558/7560/7562 are meant to be on it.
(14 Sep 2023, 9:21 pm)mb134 For the most part, no. I live on the route and every time I've gone to catch one recently, it's turned up pretty much on time.
They were given 6 buses (7553/4/7/8/60/2) for 4 boards, but realistically they'll just be allocated any E400.
(14 Sep 2023, 9:21 pm)mb134 For the most part, no. I live on the route and every time I've gone to catch one recently, it's turned up pretty much on time.
They were given 6 buses (7553/4/7/8/60/2) for 4 boards, but realistically they'll just be allocated any E400.
(14 Sep 2023, 9:23 pm)Storx That's what I thought, it seems to be the expresses which are getting it lately. Been a few X10/X11 cancellations creeping in aswell which really need the 4 BPH.
Didn't realise 7553/7554 went back, assuming these will be moving to Blyth at some point aswell since they need all the electrics together for obvious reasons.
(14 Sep 2023, 9:23 pm)Storx That's what I thought, it seems to be the expresses which are getting it lately. Been a few X10/X11 cancellations creeping in aswell which really need the 4 BPH.
Didn't realise 7553/7554 went back, assuming these will be moving to Blyth at some point aswell since they need all the electrics together for obvious reasons.
(14 Sep 2023, 9:15 pm)Storx I don't even think the 43/44/45 have been that bad recently have they?
There's a few 43/44/45/47 boards at Ashington btw. 7557/7558/7560/7562 are meant to be on it.
(14 Sep 2023, 9:15 pm)Storx I don't even think the 43/44/45 have been that bad recently have they?
There's a few 43/44/45/47 boards at Ashington btw. 7557/7558/7560/7562 are meant to be on it.
(14 Sep 2023, 9:23 pm)Storx That's what I thought, it seems to be the X7/X8/X9 and 306 which are really getting hit hard lately and are borderline unusable. Not been much mention of the 306 but there's a lot of peak time journeys being cancelled and good luck going the other way.
(14 Sep 2023, 9:23 pm)Storx That's what I thought, it seems to be the X7/X8/X9 and 306 which are really getting hit hard lately and are borderline unusable. Not been much mention of the 306 but there's a lot of peak time journeys being cancelled and good luck going the other way.
(14 Sep 2023, 9:37 pm)Shrek They haven't been too bad recently, a few cancellations since they all moved from Walkergate, but people like to complain and I think the people in those areas think it's only the 43/44/45 which are seeing cancellations which clearly isn't the case.
I hadn't realised that Ashington were doing some boards, that makes sense now.
(14 Sep 2023, 9:47 pm)mb134 I have a feeling some of the Blyth issues are vehicle related as well as driver. If you take 7632 today, the 1720 306 does not run onto the 18:48 45 usually, and looking at previous days the 44/45 stint evidently comes from depot so I'm assuming there was no vehicle available for the driver on the 18:48 45?Similarly, this morning, 7606 appeared to fail on the 09:10 306 to Whitley Bay with nothing sent to replace it. It then made it about 1 stop on the 10:29 X9 before being replaced by 7629, then itself replaced 7506 on the X10/11.
Shift wise, from the looks of it, journeys don't seem to get dropped until around the 9-10am mark, and I haven't seen any late evening journeys missing. It looks like they are prioritising covering journeys that most people rely on to get to work in the morning, and the last buses of the day, and then trying to spread resource as best as possible surrounding that.
(14 Sep 2023, 9:37 pm)Shrek They haven't been too bad recently, a few cancellations since they all moved from Walkergate, but people like to complain and I think the people in those areas think it's only the 43/44/45 which are seeing cancellations which clearly isn't the case.
I hadn't realised that Ashington were doing some boards, that makes sense now.
(14 Sep 2023, 9:47 pm)mb134 I have a feeling some of the Blyth issues are vehicle related as well as driver. If you take 7632 today, the 1720 306 does not run onto the 18:48 45 usually, and looking at previous days the 44/45 stint evidently comes from depot so I'm assuming there was no vehicle available for the driver on the 18:48 45?Similarly, this morning, 7606 appeared to fail on the 09:10 306 to Whitley Bay with nothing sent to replace it. It then made it about 1 stop on the 10:29 X9 before being replaced by 7629, then itself replaced 7506 on the X10/11.
Shift wise, from the looks of it, journeys don't seem to get dropped until around the 9-10am mark, and I haven't seen any late evening journeys missing. It looks like they are prioritising covering journeys that most people rely on to get to work in the morning, and the last buses of the day, and then trying to spread resource as best as possible surrounding that.
(14 Sep 2023, 10:06 pm)Storx Not going to lie, I do have a feeling there might be vehicle issues involved aswell. I know when I was looking the other day, everything seemed to be on the road which could be on the road.
The school boards at Blyth really aren't helping things either which I have a feeling might be the main reason for evening peaks going to pot as it's taking buses out which then are pretty much hopeless as they're miles away.
Mind there has to be serious questions on why the X30 is running when the core routes are being messed up completely. I've just noticed that the 17:45 X30 ran which was the exact same time one of the X7's was cancelled tonight which was the bus which should've ran that bus as it came off a cancelled X8 towards Newcastle. Poor allocating that imo.
(14 Sep 2023, 10:06 pm)Storx Not going to lie, I do have a feeling there might be vehicle issues involved aswell. I know when I was looking the other day, everything seemed to be on the road which could be on the road.
The school boards at Blyth really aren't helping things either which I have a feeling might be the main reason for evening peaks going to pot as it's taking buses out which then are pretty much hopeless as they're miles away.
Mind there has to be serious questions on why the X30 is running when the core routes are being messed up completely. I've just noticed that the 17:45 X30 ran which was the exact same time one of the X7's was cancelled tonight which was the bus which should've ran that bus as it came off a cancelled X8 towards Newcastle. Poor allocating that imo.
(14 Sep 2023, 10:16 pm)mb134 I'd had the same thought about the school buses, it seems to be the thing creating the occasional 1 hour gap in the X7/8/9 cycle as during the 10am-3pm window they seem to be limiting any cancellations to maybe 1 bus off at most.
I think they'll prioritise the X30 given there are only 2 per direction? That, and I imagine it's probably pretty easy to ask a driver to stay back for one X30 from town (if it is a driver issue, rather than vehicle).
(14 Sep 2023, 10:16 pm)mb134 I'd had the same thought about the school buses, it seems to be the thing creating the occasional 1 hour gap in the X7/8/9 cycle as during the 10am-3pm window they seem to be limiting any cancellations to maybe 1 bus off at most.
I think they'll prioritise the X30 given there are only 2 per direction? That, and I imagine it's probably pretty easy to ask a driver to stay back for one X30 from town (if it is a driver issue, rather than vehicle).
(14 Sep 2023, 10:23 pm)Storx Yeah it seems stuff is dropping out for them and then not returning into service no doubt be the end of the shift for them.
Yeah that's true mind I suppose as the X7 is a hell of a bus route at rush hour. Mind that said, that probably doesn't help either as the traffic is much worse in an evening and they're regularly upto 20 minutes late which could knock driver hours off so they couldn't do another return trip without going over especially by the time they're 30 - 40 minutes late which isn't uncommon.
Could explain why buses aren't returning to Newcastle on the 306 aswell.
(14 Sep 2023, 10:23 pm)Storx Yeah it seems stuff is dropping out for them and then not returning into service no doubt be the end of the shift for them.
Yeah that's true mind I suppose as the X7 is a hell of a bus route at rush hour. Mind that said, that probably doesn't help either as the traffic is much worse in an evening and they're regularly upto 20 minutes late which could knock driver hours off so they couldn't do another return trip without going over especially by the time they're 30 - 40 minutes late which isn't uncommon.
Could explain why buses aren't returning to Newcastle on the 306 aswell.
I was waiting for an X11 in Cramlington towards town today, and on the map it was 10 minutes or so away. Happened to look up as an X10 (running a couple of minutes behind schedule) came off the roundabout. Jumped up and got on it but it's an example of the reliance put on live tracking by many members of the public, myself included, versus the scheduled service. The bus in question, 7621, has not tracked on Bustimes for nearly a week.
