Surprised 4899 hasn't been withdrawn yet, with a 5204 going to Riverside.

(01 Jul 2018, 10:43 am)Michael wrote Surprised 4899 hasn't been withdrawn yet, with a 5204 going to Riverside.

It was withdrawn in May?

(01 Jul 2018, 10:43 am)Michael wrote Surprised 4899 hasn't been withdrawn yet, with a 5204 going to Riverside.

(01 Jul 2018, 11:14 am)S813 FVK wrote It was withdrawn in May?

Keep up at the back there Michael 

(01 Jul 2018, 11:14 am)S813 FVK wrote It was withdrawn in May?

Was it?, shows how much I've took notice lately 

(01 Jul 2018, 10:43 am)Michael wrote Surprised 4899 hasn't been withdrawn yet, with a 5204 going to Riverside.

Oh Michael.

(01 Jul 2018, 11:41 am)Andreos1 wrote Oh Michael.

Actually i'm sure someone said it was wrong..... 

(01 Jul 2018, 11:42 am)Michael wrote Actually i'm sure someone said it was wrong..... 

Taxed till next year according to the DVLA.
https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/ViewVehicle

Mind they still have it as 'green'...

(01 Jul 2018, 3:55 pm)Andreos1 wrote Taxed till next year according to the DVLA.
https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/ViewVehicle

Mind they still have it as 'green'...

As you'll already know, but to benefit those who don't given it seems to have been quite a misconception on other forums, the vehicle tax can be refunded.

The costs associated with preparing a bus for MOT, especially of that age, cannot. 4899's MOT has now expired (it did back in May, although not from the originally quoted date) and won't be renewed - unless a preservationist wants to take it on and put it through test themselves!

(29 Jun 2018, 10:30 pm)Multi21 wrote Seven buses are going up to Go North East ready for the Tall Ships Races. They are buses 586 (6938), 594 (6939), 595 (6940), 650 (6936), 652 (6935), 654 (6937) and 667 (6941) (Go North East fleet numbers in brackets). https://t.co/Xw2orGA5YF

Source - East Yorkshire Enthusiast Twitter Page

6935 and 6937 were collected by Go North East this afternoon. The remaining five are expected to transfer north next weekend.

Go North East: 6935 / X508EGK by Daniel Graham, on Flickr

(01 Jul 2018, 4:35 pm)Dan wrote 6935 and 6937 were collected by Go North East this afternoon. The remaining five are expected to transfer north next weekend.

Go North East: 6935 / X508EGK by Daniel Graham, on Flickr

When will the Solo's and Omnidekka's enter service?

719 has entered service at Peterlee and was on the 265 today - https://www.flickr.com/photos/adammalark...ed-public/

When do the new omnidekkas start service?

Has anyone been on Angel 6318 recently? I’ve happened to be on it 2 or 3 times in the last couple of days and it seems to be saying ‘This is the Angel 21 service to (wherever)’ a lot more than usual. Sometimes twice within a minute, and while approaching or at a stop, then again as soon as it pulls away.
Must be a fault?

(03 Jul 2018, 4:16 pm)ne14ne1 wrote Has anyone been on Angel 6318 recently? I’ve happened to be on it 2 or 3 times in the last couple of days and it seems to be saying ‘This is the Angel 21 service to (wherever)’ a lot more than usual. Sometimes twice within a minute, and while approaching or at a stop, then again as soon as it pulls away. 
Must be a fault?

On all buses with the newer Next Stop Announcement system, the "This is the xx service to yy" announcement is played whenever the doors of the bus are closed. Just a trial for now, based on feedback and requests.

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(03 Jul 2018, 4:16 pm)ne14ne1 wrote Has anyone been on Angel 6318 recently? I’ve happened to be on it 2 or 3 times in the last couple of days and it seems to be saying ‘This is the Angel 21 service to (wherever)’ a lot more than usual. Sometimes twice within a minute, and while approaching or at a stop, then again as soon as it pulls away.
Must be a fault?

I noticed that when I was on 5400 the other day, although it was on the 28.......

"This is your Black Cats 2 service to Sunderland"

(03 Jul 2018, 5:07 pm)LeeCalder wrote I noticed that when I was on 5400 the other day, although it was on the 28.......

"This is your Black Cats 2 service to Sunderland"

Sounds like the driver had inputted the wrong destination, intentionally or accidentally, and the system hadn't defaulted back to the "unrecognised journey" (because the 28 doesn't have announcements programmed).

This is a system fault on a handful of buses across the patch which the equipment supplier has been looking into for a while now - but drivers should know that if they return to the "Not in Service" display then to their correct route, that this problem goes away, if they do have one of the buses with this fault.

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My first impression of this is that every stop is probably a bit excessive, although I don't want to come across as disregarding the needs of those who rely on such systems. I will try and get out and about to listen to them myself, although I can't see my opinion changing.

With some stops being so close together, the announcement may just delay the next announcement, making the current issue of announcements finishing at the bus stop itself (unavoidable, I know) even worse. "Tyne Road East" and "Tyne Road" when heading towards Stanley on the 16 is a good example of this, as is "Avon Road - Keir Hardie Avenue" and "Avon Road" in the opposite direction.

It will, however, cure the issue of the 'This is the...' announcement not being heard by passengers at the start of a route because of the normal procedure of destinations being set before the driver allows passengers to board.

(03 Jul 2018, 4:25 pm)Dan wrote On all buses with the newer Next Stop Announcement system, the "This is the xx service to yy" announcement is played whenever the doors of the bus are closed. Just a trial for now, based on feedback and requests.

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Ah, unless it was because the driver reopened the doors to let some last second passengers on. It was a little annoying though as he happened to reopen the doors at 2 or 3 stops in a row, so it played twice each time.

I'm all for the idea but maybe if they go ahead with it properly they could do it on GPS(?) like the next stop lines, rather than on the doors opening/closing?
Also a shortened version (like London's) would be much more suitable/less annoying if played so regularly - i.e simply: "21, to, Newcastle", rather than "This is the Angel 21 service, to Newcastle".

(03 Jul 2018, 5:43 pm)S813 FVK wrote My first impression of this is that every stop is probably a bit excessive, although I don't want to come across as disregarding the needs of those who rely on such systems. I will try and get out and about to listen to them myself, although I can't see my opinion changing.

With some stops being so close together, the announcement may just delay the next announcement, making the current issue of announcements finishing at the bus stop itself (unavoidable, I know) even worse. "Tyne Road East" and "Tyne Road" when heading towards Stanley on the 16 is a good example of this, as is "Avon Road - Keir Hardie Avenue" and "Avon Road" in the opposite direction.

It will, however, cure the issue of the 'This is the...' announcement not being heard by passengers at the start of a route because of the normal procedure of destinations being set before the driver allows passengers to board.

(03 Jul 2018, 5:47 pm)ne14ne1 wrote Ah, unless it was because the driver reopened the doors to let some last second passengers on. It was a little annoying though as he happened to reopen the doors at 2 or 3 stops in a row, so it played twice each time.

I'm all for the idea but maybe if they go ahead with it properly they could do it on GPS(?) like the next stop lines, rather than on the doors opening/closing?
Also a shortened version (like London's) would be more suitable/less annoying if played so regularly - i.e simply: "21, to, Newcastle", rather than "This is the Angel 21 service, to Newcastle".

The announcement was previously programmed in manually (let's say GPS-driven as per your suggestion, for lack of a simple explanation), at certain stops (usually timing points or stops which a lot of people tend to use), but as Go North East now have more than 400 journeys programmed in their systems, it was becoming harder and harder to keep control of.

It has been requested several times recently that this announcement is played more often, and with a little bit more consistency, rather than just "as and when". It instills confidence in visually-impaired passengers that they have boarded the correct bus, and are heading to the correct destination. The next step will be to have more detailed announcements leaving timing points, similar to those already in use on the X9/X10 and X84/X85, giving some brief details on the main calling points of the route and/or on approach to a major interchange point, but these announcements for now are just a trial to gather some feedback. Thus far there's been very little negative feedback received but it's early days, with the new media only being uploaded to buses over the weekend.

In full agreement that this announcement would be much too excessive if it were played at every single bus stop, and that's why the system doesn't do that. This announcement is (or should be) only triggered after the bus is fully stopped, doors are opened, and the doors are closed again, before continuing the usual "next stop" announcement once the bus reaches a 40m radius away from the previous stop. I believe Oxford Bus Company use a similar set-up for their announcements. Clearly on a route like the 21, the bus does stop at the majority of stops, but this is pretty unique as most services will bypass several stops before an intending passenger flags down the bus. The idea behind this being that this is when passengers have boarded the bus, although it's inevitable that it will also happen when passengers alight and nobody boards (this is unavoidable). On a night when buses stop less often, the doors will be opened (and hence closed) a lot less often, and therefore this announcement won't be played then. I'd doubt many visually-impaired passengers are using Go North East's services late at night, so there's no massive loss here.

Also agree that the shorter London-like announcement may be better - trial and error for now to see what works the best.

It shouldn't delay any other announcements, as if the system detects that the GPS radius is too small between stops, it shouldn't announce anything (but the visual display will work). Clearly speed of the bus will play a part in this too, which the system is unable to detect.

The final stop on the route will always now be announced as where the bus terminates, another announcement which has been requested quite often.

It seems to be playing when the doors open and close, well the DD streetlite was yesterday (5450)

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Hi all, 

Had my assessment today and got offered the job however just wanting some more information; 

1/ What is the pay like? How much do you get? 

2/ What is the job like? 

3/ Do you get alternative weekends off? Like is it fairly spread out? 

Advice would be great thanks ?

(03 Jul 2018, 6:50 pm)Jamie M wrote It seems to be playing when the doors open and close, well the DD streetlite was yesterday (5450)

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That shouldn't happen so I will try and have a look at 5450 tomorrow.

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(03 Jul 2018, 7:01 pm)Northerngal wrote Hi all, 

Had my assessment today and got offered the job however just wanting some more information; 

1/ What is the pay like? How much do you get? 

2/ What is the job like? 

3/ Do you get alternative weekends off? Like is it fairly spread out? 

Advice would be great thanks ?

Job is great. I have friends who do it and they love it. You go on a rota system for shifts and rest days. What depot you off to?

(03 Jul 2018, 7:01 pm)Northerngal wrote Hi all, 

Had my assessment today and got offered the job however just wanting some more information; 

1/ What is the pay like? How much do you get? 

2/ What is the job like? 

3/ Do you get alternative weekends off? Like is it fairly spread out? 

Advice would be great thanks ?

Congrats on getting through the assessment day. 
 1. Training is paid at minimum wage from the day you start, depending on your age it will be either the minimum wage or the national living wage, it goes up once signed off from your mentor at the depot once you have passed all the tests then goes up over time. 
2. The job is great, its like every job though, you will hear stories of people who hate it but have been their 20 odd year, it cant be that bad can it. 
3. Training is Monday to Friday, after that your days off could be any day of the week but you will get some weekends off. 
A little tip, start studying for your theory tests now as you do them in the first week, the training is really intense but it is worth it in the end.
Good Luck

6099 has been repainted into the new corporate livery with very minimal Sun FM branding

(03 Jul 2018, 7:05 pm)Dan wrote That shouldn't happen so I will try and have a look at 5450 tomorrow.

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5450 was behaving today, when I tested it out!

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(04 Jul 2018, 4:26 pm)Dan wrote 5450 was behaving today, when I tested it out!

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Might just be when it's got the wrong announcements on i.e when a driver switches from 16A straight to 6A rather than via NIS, it announces a lot that it's the 16A to Stanley, same thing on the X70s too but with Consett instead.

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Loads of Go North East branded Versa's on the 36 atm, are the branded ones getting repainted?

Just seen a Coast and Country go down Durham Road towards the City Centre... any idea why its gone that way?

(04 Jul 2018, 4:40 pm)Michael wrote Just seen a Coast and Country go down Durham Road towards the City Centre... any idea why its gone that way?

could be on the 36