Tender Discussion Thread

[Tom]

Service 30 is being operated by a different company after Saturday 5th July due to changes with the contract with Northumberland County Council. Any idea who will operate it?

[peter]

Service 30 is being operated by a different company after Saturday 5th July due to changes with the contract with Northumberland County Council. Any idea who will operate it?

Phoenix Taxis. See here: http://www.northumberland.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=3972

[Tom]

Phoenix Taxis. See here: http://www.northumberland.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=3972

Wonder what they will use.

[Tom]

Have we heard anything more on the Northumberland tenders?

[peter]

From the 28th July Nexus are making changes to the 37/73:

The 37 bus will, from 28 July, be extended from Washington Galleries to serve Biddick, Teal Farm, Waterview Park, Sulgrave and Concord, including Coach Road.

This means the 37 will provide a new direct route to major employment sites at Waterview Park, and Doxford International for people living in south Sunderland, Herrington, Shiney Row and north Washington.

The 73 will provide a more direct hourly link from Teal Farm to Sunderland city centre, as well as bringing back a popular morning commuter journey from Coach Road and Concord to the city.

The bus will no longer serve Biddick or Galleries, with the 37 taking over these journeys on its new route.

Link: http://www.nexus.org.uk/news/item/better...washington

[Michael]

From the 28th July Nexus are making changes to the 37/73:


Link: http://www.nexus.org.uk/news/item/better...washington

That's how it should of being for the 37 from the start, shame they haven't kept the 73 going to the galleries to

[Malarkey]

That's how it should of being for the 37 from the start, shame they haven't kept the 73 going to the galleries to

Why when the 37 has replaced it.

[Michael]

Why when the 37 has replaced it.

Just to keep the link from Castletown etc.

[MurdnunoC]

I agree with the comment Michael made about services 37 and 73. The route of service 73 was an absolute mess between Waterview Park and The Galleries. The extension of service 37 from The Galleries to Concord via Biddick and Teal Farm rectifies previous mistakes and provides the same level of service with the added bonus of providing new links between Doxford Park and areas lying to the north and east of Washington.

Service 73 doesn't really need to go to the Galleries though. Connections can still be made at Concord which is just as accessible, by bus, from most parts of Washington although I accept travelling there may take slightly longer.

[Adrian]

Current Nexus contract list (as of 27th July 2014) is attached to this post.

[Michael]

Current Nexus contract list (as of 27th July 2014) is attached to this post.

Thanks for sharing.

[Adrian]

Something I've spotted straight away. It would appear that the minimum spec for Compass Community Transport's 37 board is a Euro 5 vehicle with capacity of 16, yet the board Gateshead Central Taxis have won for the 37 and 73 requires 3x Euro 5 vehicles with a capacity of 49. Seems bizarre how one operator can be contracted for 16 and one for 49 - i.e. 3x the capacity!

7102    37,8X    Compass Community Tpt    1    L1605    29/05/2011    25/07/2015    Wholly secured
7614    37,73    Central Taxis Gateshead    3    L4905    27/07/2014    22/07/2017    Wholly secured

Also noted that the M2/M2A requires a Euro 4 vehicle for the Nexus funded runs. I'd assume these would be Sunday journeys, given that Arriva operate on an evening, with GNE running Concord-Heworth commecially. Both the MPDs and Cadets are Euro 3 vehicles, so I wonder if either a) GNE are just taking the hit here, or b) that information is wrong?

7598    M2,M2A    Go Northern    1    L2304    01/06/2014    30/05/2015    Partially secured

[Dan]

Something I've spotted straight away. It would appear that the minimum spec for Compass Community Transport's 37 board is a Euro 5 vehicle with capacity of 16, yet the board Gateshead Central Taxis have won for the 37 and 73 requires 3x Euro 5 vehicles with a capacity of 49. Seems bizarre how one operator can be contracted for 16 and one for 49 - i.e. 3x the capacity!

7102    37,8X    Compass Community Tpt    1    L1605    29/05/2011    25/07/2015    Wholly secured
7614    37,73    Central Taxis Gateshead    3    L4905    27/07/2014    22/07/2017    Wholly secured

Also noted that the M2/M2A requires a Euro 4 vehicle for the Nexus funded runs. I'd assume these would be Sunday journeys, given that Arriva operate on an evening, with GNE running Concord-Heworth commecially. Both the MPDs and Cadets are Euro 3 vehicles, so I wonder if either a) GNE are just taking the hit here, or b) that information is wrong?

7598    M2,M2A    Go Northern    1    L2304    01/06/2014    30/05/2015    Partially secured

The contract for services 37/73 certainly originally stipulated the use of vehicles with a minimum capacity of 49, with Euro 4 vehicles, to my memory... Clearly Compass has submitted a non-conforming bid which has been accepted due to the lower cost for Nexus. I'd assume this is why the contract only lasts for one year with CCT, but three with GCT. Bizarre, nevertheless...

MPDs 603-606 and Cadets 8247/48, 8251-55 and 8260 are all Euro 4 vehicles. Although fitted with Euro 3 engines when new, they have had Eminox modifications to make them Euro 4. Indeed, all of Washington's fleet is Euro 4 or Euro 5. I have stated in the past that the overwhelming majority of Go North East's fleet is a minimum of Euro 4, thanks to Eminox modifications, with only a few vehicles being less than that, at Euro 2 or 3.

[tyresmoke]

The contract for services 37/73 certainly originally stipulated the use of vehicles with a minimum capacity of 49, with Euro 4 vehicles, to my memory... Clearly Compass has submitted a non-conforming bid which has been accepted due to the lower cost for Nexus. I'd assume this is why the contract only lasts for one year with CCT, but three with GCT. Bizarre, nevertheless...

MPDs 603-606 and Cadets 8247/48, 8251-55 and 8260 are all Euro 4 vehicles. Although fitted with Euro 3 engines when new, they have had Eminox modifications to make them Euro 4. I have stated in the past that the overwhelming majority of Go North East's fleet is a minimum of Euro 4, thanks to Eminox modifications, with only a few vehicles being less than that, at Euro 2 or 3.

Looks to me like the Compass contract is an existing one running from 2011 Dan... Not sure where they fit in to the schedule?

[Dan]

Looks to me like the Compass contract is an existing one running from 2011 Dan... Not sure where they fit in to the schedule?

They're the peak time 'extras' that they operated previously too (which fits in with it being an already established contract) - GCT took over GNE's run on service 37. Now that it interworks with service 73, it requires 3 vehicles in total.

[tyresmoke]

They're the peak time 'extras' that they operated previously too (which fits in with it being an already established contract) - GCT took over GNE's run on service 37. Now that it interworks with service 73, it requires 3 vehicles in total.

Makes sense, cheers

[Adrian]

They're the peak time 'extras' that they operated previously too (which fits in with it being an already established contract) - GCT took over GNE's run on service 37. Now that it interworks with service 73, it requires 3 vehicles in total.

I recall that last time GNE didn't have the 37, they put a peak time 137 in direct competition. I wonder if they'll do something similar again, given that there is about 3 runs each way per day that (at least used to) have good loads.

[Drifter60]

How does nexus set the euro rating? Just odd how 135/136 is Euro 5, 29 is Euro 4 etc.

[Dan]

How does nexus set the euro rating? Just odd how 135/136 is Euro 5, 29 is Euro 4 etc.

The higher the Euro rating, the more expensive the tender price set from bus operators will be (especially if they have to order new vehicles).

So as far as I know, it depends on how cheaply Nexus want the contract to go for. I recall the contract for service 33 in Newcastle going down from Euro 4 to Euro 3, half way through the consultation...

[Tom]

I wonder if GNE will take on the 880? Will increase the paasengers on the X85 too.