Bit of a crossover thread, so please feel free to move if need be.

Nexus have released their unaudited draft of their 2013 accounts, which can be found here: http://www.nexus.org.uk/sites/nexus.org....%20may.pdf . The performance and development section in particular makes interesting reading. Metro journeys drop by 0.5m, yet bus journeys increase by 3.0m.

Performance and Development
The following indicators describe the general performance of public transport in Tyne and Wear during 2012/13.
• The number of passenger journeys across Tyne and Wear reached more than 178 million; representing an
increase of almost 2 million journeys when compared to the previous year 2011/12.
• The main contributor to the patronage increase was Bus, with the number of journeys increasing by almost 3
million in 2012/13 to 139 million.
• Metro patronage declined by around 500,000 in 2012/13 to 37 million journeys. The impact that this loss of
patronage has on Nexus’ financial performance is kept under constant review.
• The cross Tyne ferry carried 432,000 passengers in 2012-13, below the 500,000 journeys seen for the
previous two years. It is thought that the impact of the second Tyne Tunnel has been instrumental in this
decline, added to which 2012 saw higher than average rainfall, impacting negatively on the number of
journeys made.
• Rail passengers in Tyne and Wear made more than 1.4 million journeys on local services .
• Metro reliability (operated mileage) has remained above 98.2% during 2012/13.
• Metro Charter punctuality was 86.0% during 2012/13, a decline on the 88.4% in the previous year.
Nexus invested £48.4m in its capital asset base during the year, most of which was directed at Metro, in line with its
11 year, £390m Asset Renewal Plan.

It says on the title, design your own bus station for the NE and upload it.. sorry was bored haha

Please move if in wrong area of forum =)



Stands would be as of now:

|-Stand A - Metro Replacement
|-Stand B - 23/24
|-Stand C - 61/X7
|-Stand D - 60
|-Stand E - 38/38C/238/39 (Doxford Park)
|-Stand F - 42
|-Stand G - 700
|-Stand H - 39 (Pennywell)/73
|-Stand I- 2A,2C
|-Stand J - 8,78,78A
|-Stand K 35/35A/35B/35C - Silksworth / Newbottle / Houghton-le-Spring
|-Stand L - X35
|-Stand M - 20,20A,X20
|-Stand N- E1/E2/E6
|-Stand O - 35/35A/35B/35C- South Shields
|-Stand P - 9/X3
|-Stand Q - 56/N56
|-Stand R - 26/26A/36/36A/135/136
|-Stand S - X36/700

www.bdaily.co.uk/industrials/27-06-2013/16bn-train-contract-comes-to-north-east/

South Tyneside factory to benefit from Siemens contract across London

I know we have to have it, 'cause Brussels says so, but I seem to be seeing it a lot more than I should be? Could it not be altered to place a persistent cookie on the user's machine when they accept the alert, to prevent further notifications?

I thought it was just me, but I've tried a couple of different browsers, and on two computers? Same result.

Today whilst doing a bit of bus spotting I came across this ex Hunters of Leeds Chinese Built King Long Coach and I was wondering if anyone knows if KJS are local or not as I haven't heard of them.

Good morning everyone, and I am delighted to announce some changes that are happening or have happened over the past few days.

Firstly, a minor update sees the decommissioning of the "Problems & Suggestions" sub-forum which was previously placed under the "News & Site Updates" forum. The "Problems & Suggestions" section of the site has been resurrected and is now a forum alongside "News & Site Updates". These are both placed under the parent forum of "The Site" and are displayed towards the bottom of your forum homepage. The appropriate threads from the previously used sub-forum have been moved into the new forum - no posts were lost during this process.

Secondly, we recently announced that we updated North East Buses to re-introduce our "Flickr Links" section on the site's homepage (www.northeastbuses.co.uk). You can read more about that by clicking here. Further updates to allow North East Buses to be more socially friendly have been put in place, and have now been released to our community. The appropriate navigation bar link will be added later today. You can read about this update in detail on a separate thread here.

Finally, we recently asked the community for opinions on a proposed update we had in mind. After much debate on what would these updates would mean for both the community and site management, we have decided to go ahead with the proposed ideas - although some of the ideas may be slightly different from the original proposals, having listened to the community's opinions. At the earliest, the revised "Bus Operators" forum will be released to the community at the end of this week. Many hours of work has already gone into splitting, merging and moving threads and forum posts and we are approximately at 50% completion. You will notice that access to the earlier "parts" of the Go North East thread has been revoked. This has been done to minimise potential disruption to the normal viewing of these threads. Once we are almost at completion, the presently used threads for the three main bus operators within the North East (Arriva North East, Go North East and Stagecoach North East) will be split so that we leave only the most recent posts in that thread. Again, this is done to avoid downtime of the site to perform these updates, and is done for your convenience.


More updates are to come, so stick around and you'll find out what's in store! Cheers.

We at North East Buses are always looking to enhance the Social Media interaction with our website. The North East Buses Hall of Fame adds a new dimension of sharing content with members of the community, and we believe that this feature will be vastly used by those of us who take photographs.

Are you proud of a recent photograph you have taken? By simply tagging your photo with 'NEBuses' on Flickr, your photograph will be displayed on our Hall of Fame which contains 50 photographs. See below for a step-by-step tutorial on how to display your photograph on our Hall of Fame page:

1. Tag your photo with 'NEBuses'. Capitalisation of the letters does not matter - it will work regardless. Do not put a space in between 'NE' and 'Buses', because that will be a different tag and it will not work!


2. Once you press Enter on your keyboard, this tag will be added to the tags that have already been added to the photograph. In the screenshot below, I have no other tags to that photograph apart from 'NEBuses'.


3. When Flickr updates the tag to its system, your photograph will be displayed on Flickr Search when you type in 'NEBuses'. Flickr aspires to update itself so that newly added tags are displayed in approximately five minutes, but can sometimes take longer than that. If it doesn't happen within five minutes or so, check back within an hour and it should be done.


4. As soon as Flickr updates the tag, your photograph will be displayed on the Hall of Fame. This is instantaneous and relies on no further input from you. Do note that if your photograph is not recent, it may not be displayed. Only the fifty most recently taken photographs will be displayed on this page.



While we have no limitations on the number of photos you can upload to our Hall of Fame, we request that members do not abuse this facility and allow for other members to also post their photographs. It's not a competition, so we needn't be selfish! 50 photographs are displayed on the Hall of Fame, so that's more than enough for everyone. At present, you will notice that a substantial proportion of the photographs have been taken by me, but this was just done to "fill up the wall" so to speak, until we released the feature to everyone. If someone uploads a photograph that was taken before the very last item on the wall of photographs, the last one will be replaced, every photo will move along one, and your photo will be slotted in at the appropriate date taken.

You can access the Hall of Fame by clicking here. An additional link will be provided on the navigation bar in due course.

Many thanks, and stay tuned for further updates.

Just a quick heads up on this. North Tyneside Council are consulting on the use of bus lanes in their area. I just thought I would also show my response to provide an understanding of my views with regards to this matter.

23-MAY-13

Issued by: Jeanette Hedley

Local people and transport bodies are being asked for their views to shape how North Tyneside's bus lanes operate in the future.

Letters have gone out this week to invite feedback from key stakeholders including bus operators and taxi and private hire vehicle organisations. However, anyone can submit their comments to help shape the council's future policy.

The review will explore how best bus lanes can be used to both ensure the easy movement of the borough's public transport and to support the needs of businesses who contribute to the economic success of North Tyneside.

Coun Frank Lott, Cabinet member for Economic Development said: "We need to find a solution that works for the majority, so it is important that we get as wide involvement in this consultation as possible.

"The bus lanes play an important part in our public transport network, but we also need to ensure they work to support our businesses and the sustained viability of our town centres.

"This review will aim to provide some clarity for all road users about who is allowed to use bus lanes and who shouldn't and enable a clear and consistent enforcement policy to be put in place."

The Council is asking stakeholders to share their views, and the reasons for these, on whether any changes should be considered to the list of categories of vehicle permitted in bus lanes, e.g. whether private hire vehicles should be permitted to use them.

Bus lanes at Benton Lane (A188), Salters Lane (A189) and Balliol Bus Link are currently open to vehicles including buses, hackney carriages and cycles.

The review will also consider some of the current access restrictions, for example certain streets in town centres where 'no entry except buses' or similar restrictions apply.

The Council would welcome views, and the reasons, on any particular locations where amendments to the restriction could be considered, e.g. to admit other categories of vehicle.

In the interim, dispensation has been given to the private hire trade to use bus lanes in North Tyneside, pending the outcome of the bus lane review.

Anyone wishing to share their views on the bus lane review is invited to write to the Council's Parking Control section, or email parkingcontrol@northtyneside.gov.uk , by 21 June 2013.

Introduction
North Tyneside Council is currently consulting on the vehicles which are given access to Bus Lanes in North Tyneside. This response considers the benefits of providing access to Rail Maintenance Vehicles to improve the reliability of the local public transport network.

Rail Maintenance Vehicles
I would like to see Nexus Rail and Network Rail vans granted an exemption so that they can access Bus Lanes in North Tyneside.
A substantial part of the Tyne and Wear Metro is located in North Tyneside and millions of passengers use the Coast Line to access work, leisure activities and vital services every year. The Metro is regarded as a reliable method to access these opportunities but it occasionally fails. Some of these failures require engineers to attend in vans from Nexus Rail so that they can assist with restoring the Metro service. When the Tyne and Wear Metro fails, it causes congestion on the bus and road network as potential passengers seek alternative options to travel to their activities. As a result, the Nexus Rail response can be hindered because of the additional congestion caused by the incident that they are trying to resolve. With regards to incidents on the Metro network, every minute counts, so any time that can be gained can be essential for keeping North Tyneside moving.
Although there are no National Rail stations in North Tyneside, the East Coast Main Line, which is an important transport artery connecting the North East to London and Scotland passes through the area. In addition, the freight line to Ashington leaves the East Coast Main Line in North Tyneside keeping thousands of tonnes of freight off the roads in North Tyneside. Both of these lines contribute to local economic development and reducing congestion on the local road network. These lines are maintained by Network Rail.
This request is not without precedence. Leicester City Council has granted Network Rail an exemption to access its Bus Lanes when they are responding to an incident in Network Rail liveried vans.
In this FoI response, Leicester City Council explains why they granted Network Rail permission.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/n..._exemption
Both rail networks contribute substantially to North Tyneside economically and assist with reducing the congestion on our local road network. By providing access to these vehicles, North Tyneside can assist with improving the reliability of the public transport network. This will deliver economic benefits to local residents and businesses.

Private Hire Vehicles
With regards to the matter of Private Hire vehicles, I am supportive of them being given access to Bus Lanes where it runs alongside a road. They are an important asset to an area and their ability to deliver a timely service is crucial. However, I am not supportive of them being given the ability to use Bus Gates designed for large vehicles (similar to the Bus Gate installed at Cobalt Business Park). I am concerned that an error of judgement at a bus gate would result in it getting blocked. Bus Gates are crucial to the bus networks and if it becomes blocked, buses would be forced to use lengthy diversions.
It should be made clear to Private Hire drivers that their access to Bus Lanes is a privilege and that the access is with regards to them moving through it and giving way to buses. Bus Lanes should not be used as a place to drop off, pick up and wait for passengers. Private Hire drivers should face fines and the removal of their Private Hire Licence if they undertake these actions in a Bus Lane or its associated infrastructure.

Summary
I would like to see Network Rail and Nexus Rail liveried vehicles granted access to Bus Lanes in North Tyneside. This would contribute to improving the reliability of our local public transport network and support economic development in North Tyneside
I am broadly supportive of Private Hire vehicles being able to access Bus Lanes across North Tyneside as long as they do not stop in them. I am against Private Hire vehicles using Bus Gates because of the disruption if they are blocked by a misjudgement by the driver.

These have the Sainsburys bus from Wrekenton and had a purple MPD on it.

I'd never heard of them. Have they had the contract long?

News, debate and discussion on West Midlands' Bus Operations.

Has anyone seen this? Www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-22842990
Bargain at £1.80 too! Wonder how much GNE would charge and how many zones they would squeeze into the route?

The 638 must have pushed close to this 31 mile European record mind!