Go North East: Latest News & Discussion - October 2014
Go North East: Latest News & Discussion - October 2014
(09 Oct 2014, 12:21 pm)Dan You do realise that stopping time is built into the timetable..?Yes, I was trying to make light of an inevitable situation.
(09 Oct 2014, 12:21 pm)Dan You do realise that stopping time is built into the timetable..?Yes, I was trying to make light of an inevitable situation.
(09 Oct 2014, 11:51 am)NEBCD Malarkey So therefore Passengers on both ends of the Route end up Suffering a Loss of Service as a Result due them being Regulated, To be honest I think it pretty obvious what the Problem is with the 56, and that is the fact it stops at Every Single Stop between Sunderland and Newcastle, so if it then Stops at each of the 49 Stops for 30+ Seconds then it's clearly going to accumulate added time to the Journey and this where they start running in 2's and 3's because they can't keep to Timetable, and it's the same Scenario for the 21 as well.
(09 Oct 2014, 11:51 am)NEBCD Malarkey So therefore Passengers on both ends of the Route end up Suffering a Loss of Service as a Result due them being Regulated, To be honest I think it pretty obvious what the Problem is with the 56, and that is the fact it stops at Every Single Stop between Sunderland and Newcastle, so if it then Stops at each of the 49 Stops for 30+ Seconds then it's clearly going to accumulate added time to the Journey and this where they start running in 2's and 3's because they can't keep to Timetable, and it's the same Scenario for the 21 as well.
(09 Oct 2014, 12:27 pm)NEBCD Malarkey Well if it is then mustn't be much for each stop then as it still can't keep to schedule regardless of timings.
(09 Oct 2014, 12:27 pm)NEBCD Malarkey Well if it is then mustn't be much for each stop then as it still can't keep to schedule regardless of timings.
(08 Oct 2014, 11:13 pm)Jimmi Just because you've never seen one breakdown doesn't necessarily mean they are reliable (although they are probably okay) for example I never saw a Waggonway DAF breakdown but that doesn't mean they never broke down (we all know how bad they were and I probably never saw one breakdown because they probably did somewhere en route to Newcastle or Chester-le-Street)
(08 Oct 2014, 11:13 pm)Jimmi Just because you've never seen one breakdown doesn't necessarily mean they are reliable (although they are probably okay) for example I never saw a Waggonway DAF breakdown but that doesn't mean they never broke down (we all know how bad they were and I probably never saw one breakdown because they probably did somewhere en route to Newcastle or Chester-le-Street)
(09 Oct 2014, 6:51 pm)Racer_Experience spoken to two of my mates one used to work at GNE and he said the vehicle was unreliable and broke down i spoke to one of his colleagues and she said only thing these are good for is the Horn
(09 Oct 2014, 6:51 pm)Racer_Experience spoken to two of my mates one used to work at GNE and he said the vehicle was unreliable and broke down i spoke to one of his colleagues and she said only thing these are good for is the Horn
It's not as if there aren't any buses from Newcastle City Centre to Gateshead though! (More or less the same in Sunderland)...
I reckon GNE have good reason to regulate the buses and start late/finish early. If that's what they've got to do to keep to their timetable, it's the best option!
I think if that does happen though, customers should be allowed to use any 56 ticket on other Gateshead-Newcastle services etc. and be told that they should connect using another service.
(08 Oct 2014, 10:55 pm)Racer_Experience yes i've never seen one of them breakdown within the last 2 years since they have been on the road
(08 Oct 2014, 10:55 pm)Racer_Experience yes i've never seen one of them breakdown within the last 2 years since they have been on the road
If a service is frequently regulated then the timetable clearly does not work and extra vehicles must be added to the PVR. Otherwise passengers will continue to be inconvenienced by the advertised service not being provided.
(09 Oct 2014, 10:09 pm)Greg in Weardale If a service is frequently regulated then the timetable clearly does not work and extra vehicles must be added to the PVR. Otherwise passengers will continue to be inconvenienced by the advertised service not being provided.The 1000 run out of Newcastle may be on time on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but on Thursday and Friday, it might be so late that it has to be regulated.
(09 Oct 2014, 10:09 pm)Greg in Weardale If a service is frequently regulated then the timetable clearly does not work and extra vehicles must be added to the PVR. Otherwise passengers will continue to be inconvenienced by the advertised service not being provided.The 1000 run out of Newcastle may be on time on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but on Thursday and Friday, it might be so late that it has to be regulated.
In other news, Dennis Trident 3890 is back at Percy Main following a deep clean at Thorntons.
I believe it was allocated to a scholars service yesterday afternoon, so it should be out on 327s today for anyone wanting a photograph... Either 3866 or 3867 should go to Saltmeadows after finishing up on this morning's 327.
Percy Main still have 3874 - possible that it's staying on temporarily to cover for the DFDS allocation in the paintshop.
(10 Oct 2014, 5:51 am)Dan In other news, Dennis Trident 3890 is back at Percy Main following a deep clean at Thorntons.
I believe it was allocated to a scholars service yesterday afternoon, so it should be out on 327s today for anyone wanting a photograph... Either 3866 or 3867 should go to Saltmeadows after finishing up on this morning's 327.
Percy Main still have 3874 - possible that it's staying on temporarily to cover for the DFDS allocation in the paintshop.
(10 Oct 2014, 5:51 am)Dan In other news, Dennis Trident 3890 is back at Percy Main following a deep clean at Thorntons.
I believe it was allocated to a scholars service yesterday afternoon, so it should be out on 327s today for anyone wanting a photograph... Either 3866 or 3867 should go to Saltmeadows after finishing up on this morning's 327.
Percy Main still have 3874 - possible that it's staying on temporarily to cover for the DFDS allocation in the paintshop.
The whole basis of operating a bus service is that passengers will "turn up and go". Timetables have to be robust and be designed to work in all except exceptional circumstances. So you time your bus according to how long it takes to travel between main points on each route in average traffic conditions and picking up average passenger numbers. Then at each main point on the route it's given a couple of minutes recovery time and at the end of the route sufficient layover to allow driver to have a pee, or long enough to depart in time in case of delay; so probably 6 or 7 minutes on an hour plus journey. For example, the X21 which I use most often, should have a couple of minutes at Gateshead, Chester le Street and Durham. But it seems to struggle to keep on time even when it gets a good run and is rarely on time at those points. Same is true for the 20, and the 21 timetable just doesn't work, as again, even when they have a good run they don't have to wait time anywhere, showing that the timings are too tight. Smaller operators get hassle from the Traffic Commissioners if they don't keep to the timetables; big ones seem to get away with it. I accept that they won't get it right all the time as you can't cater for exceptional circumstances, but many of GNE's services are timed too tightly, whereas the Arriva buses I see around Bishop Auckland (X1, 1, 5, 56, 86 & 87) usually run well and seem adequately timed; the only exception is the ridiculous timetable of the 6 which is unreliable and the two buses an hour supposed to extend to Cockfield don't get that far all too often. Regulation, ie cancellation, of buses on less frequent extensions to routes such as Arriva's 6 West Auckland to Cockfield and GNE's 21 Chester to Durham is incompetent and unacceptable. Only the frequent, combined sections of routes should lose workings to try to regain the schedules.
In total agreement with the 'turn up and go' point - on routes, which have high frequency services.
Wasn't this encouraged by operators and Nexus in their branding at one point?
Turning up to a stop, for a specific timed service rarely works in my experience - if only because of similarities mentioned relating to the 20, 21 and 56.
The 4 falls into that category and seems to get mentioned on the fb page with increasing regularity.
high frequency service or low frequency service, anything can ruin a bus journey, for example I was on the 50 in Washington last week and it left Washington on-time but two wheelchairs boarded the bus with difficulty so we ended up arriving in Durham 10 minutes late. Same can happen on the likes of the 21 & 56 for example if there is a pushchair who wants to get on but the spaces are taken and they decide not to wait for the next bus and have to fold down the pushchair, keep an eye on their baby and find the money to pay for their fare and this causes a delay and it results in the next bus catching it up.
The 56 is the worst for this as everytime I'm in Newcastle, Gateshead or Sunderland I see two together yet I don't think I've ever seen two Red Arrows together so clearly timetables are somewhat of a problem on the 56.
(10 Oct 2014, 10:39 am)Jimmi high frequency service or low frequency service, anything can ruin a bus journey, for example I was on the 50 in Washington last week and it left Washington on-time but two wheelchairs boarded the bus with difficulty so we ended up arriving in Durham 10 minutes late. Same can happen on the likes of the 21 & 56 for example if there is a pushchair who wants to get on but the spaces are taken and they decide not to wait for the next bus and have to fold down the pushchair, keep an eye on their baby and find the money to pay for their fare and this causes a delay and it results in the next bus catching it up.
The 56 is the worst for this as everytime I'm in Newcastle, Gateshead or Sunderland I see two together yet I don't think I've ever seen two Red Arrows together so clearly timetables are somewhat of a problem on the 56.
(10 Oct 2014, 10:39 am)Jimmi high frequency service or low frequency service, anything can ruin a bus journey, for example I was on the 50 in Washington last week and it left Washington on-time but two wheelchairs boarded the bus with difficulty so we ended up arriving in Durham 10 minutes late. Same can happen on the likes of the 21 & 56 for example if there is a pushchair who wants to get on but the spaces are taken and they decide not to wait for the next bus and have to fold down the pushchair, keep an eye on their baby and find the money to pay for their fare and this causes a delay and it results in the next bus catching it up.
The 56 is the worst for this as everytime I'm in Newcastle, Gateshead or Sunderland I see two together yet I don't think I've ever seen two Red Arrows together so clearly timetables are somewhat of a problem on the 56.
It's not an issue unique to Go North East, nor is it an issue which is only seen on a couple of Go North East services.
Stagecoach in Sunderland's 10 minute frequency services are exactly the same. If they've been incredibly unlucky, you can see three 16s in a row by the time they get to Chester Road at 17:00...
(10 Oct 2014, 12:03 pm)Dan It's not an issue unique to Go North East, nor is it an issue which is only seen on a couple of Go North East services.
Stagecoach in Sunderland's 10 minute frequency services are exactly the same. If they've been incredibly unlucky, you can see three 16s in a row by the time they get to Chester Road at 17:00...
(10 Oct 2014, 12:03 pm)Dan It's not an issue unique to Go North East, nor is it an issue which is only seen on a couple of Go North East services.
Stagecoach in Sunderland's 10 minute frequency services are exactly the same. If they've been incredibly unlucky, you can see three 16s in a row by the time they get to Chester Road at 17:00...