(26 Apr 2014, 1:50 pm)AIG20 wrote For hygiene purposes the bus should have been removed from service immediately, as leaving sick on this bus will deter passengers and cause more germs to spread, therefore making more people feel sick.

This occurred with one of SNE South Shields's vehicles whilst working the E2 heading to South Shields, and as soon as the driver found out, it was withdrawn once it reached the depot.

(26 Apr 2014, 1:59 pm)Dan wrote I told the driver and he is cleaning it now. Can't help bit feel that transferring everyone to 7513 (which is parked in the station) would have been more appropriate, but y'know.

(26 Apr 2014, 1:07 pm)Dan wrote 7486 arrived into Scarborough 15m late and departed at 13:00 (20 minutes late).

7484 arrived into Scarborough 17m late and departed at 13:58 (18 minutes late). In addition, 7484 smells absolutely disgusting because there's a large amount of sick at the back of the vehicle on the upper saloon. Watch out Customer Services, you've got an e-mail coming from me tonight - especially if I miss my 15m connection at Middlesbrough.

See attachment. Fair to say I moved seat.

(26 Apr 2014, 4:54 pm)tyresmoke wrote Whitby drivers (and inspector) are very hands on - mind you wouldn't get me cleaning sick up lol

(26 Apr 2014, 5:26 pm)upt50k wrote During the last school hols at Easter I had 2 incidents of children having been sick and the parents not telling me leaving me to be told by other passengers

(26 Apr 2014, 7:41 pm)robisdave15 wrote Not really anything to laugh about (the sick on the X93) but this is the attitude you get from Arriva and it's staff. The whole service is a joke, always has been and always will be.

(26 Apr 2014, 8:35 pm)robisdave15 wrote What might the point be in writing down the times ? What's that going to achieve? Last year we had the farce with the E400's - totally unsuitable for the route and demands placed on them by a greedy operator - and now we've got these clapped out and frankly scruffy, cast offs from London! Tell me? What good does giving something a respray solve? Arriva choose to operate this route double deck not to solve the overcrowding issues but essentially, to save money. I, like a lot of people, would like to travel to the seaside, but not with Arriva.

(26 Apr 2014, 8:35 pm)robisdave15 wrote What might the point be in writing down the times ? What's that going to achieve? Last year we had the farce with the E400's - totally unsuitable for the route and demands placed on them by a greedy operator - and now we've got these clapped out and frankly scruffy, cast offs from London! Tell me? What good does giving something a respray solve? Arriva choose to operate this route double deck not to solve the overcrowding issues but essentially, to save money. I, like a lot of people, would like to travel to the seaside, but not with Arriva.

(26 Apr 2014, 8:49 pm)robisdave15 wrote I wonder how that works? Just the sort of answer I'd expect. Must be an Arriva employee not one of the poor passengers that have to suffer them!

(26 Apr 2014, 9:43 pm)robisdave15 wrote I apologise if I upset anyone along the way but such is life. My interpretation of "improving" a service though is buses that run to time and can be relied on; at present that's not what is happening on the 93's. Statistics may say otherwise but facts blow a hole in that? I've read what is posted here, listened to other people's tales of woe and experienced it at first hand! It's a fact that if it wasn't for the efforts of the Whitby based operating staff it would have been worse than it has been. Until recently, for example (the last round of service changes) they were sent every poor vehicle that Redcar could manage and breakdowns/service failures were rife, now thankfully with the introduction of Pulsars in the x4/4 and these B7's - such as they are - on the X93 then things might just be looking up? I've not yet seen the new 'summer' timetable for the 93, just hope those at Arriva have provided a sensible timetable for a change.

(26 Apr 2014, 9:46 pm)mb134 wrote Would the service be better operated totally by Whitby?

(26 Apr 2014, 9:43 pm)robisdave15 wrote I apologise if I upset anyone along the way but such is life. My interpretation of "improving" a service though is buses that run to time and can be relied on; at present that's not what is happening on the 93's. Statistics may say otherwise but facts blow a hole in that? I've read what is posted here, listened to other people's tales of woe and experienced it at first hand! It's a fact that if it wasn't for the efforts of the Whitby based operating staff it would have been worse than it has been. Until recently, for example (the last round of service changes) they were sent every poor vehicle that Redcar could manage and breakdowns/service failures were rife, now thankfully with the introduction of Pulsars in the x4/4 and these B7's - such as they are - on the X93 then things might just be looking up? I've not yet seen the new 'summer' timetable for the 93, just hope those at Arriva have provided a sensible timetable for a change.

(26 Apr 2014, 11:18 am)VolvoMarkII wrote I can view live data 7 days a week...

(27 Apr 2014, 6:02 am)robisdave15 wrote Clearly, when we read what Tyresmoke says, more people than myself are dissatisfied with what happens on the X93 than just me? Why have we had "director intervention?" It is a challenging route to operate and no mistake I have been, perhaps, a little harsh with my criticism but sadly have seen the dark side of the X93 to often, late running, breakdowns..I don't need to elaborate. What Tyresmoke says stacks up particularly that the service will operate from Stand 9 at MBS? Why it was changed from Stand 1 I don't know? The provision of "extra" layover time at Whitby? Have to wait and see about that one? What, for example are the turn round times at the ends of the route? Operation from Stockton we know can't, sadly happen and the use of the B7'S we will have to wait and see; I don't see anything on the Arriva stock being able to properly cope with the route? Maybe splitting the service and having the MBS - Scarborough X93 operating direct ommiting Robin Hoods Bay and the short 93 trips (Whitby-Scarborough) going through Bay could be an answer? There are many permutations so I will sit back and watch will interest.

(27 Apr 2014, 7:15 am)VolvoMarkII wrote I believe Stand 1 is not used by any service permanently as it is not DDA compliant. As such, when the bus station was refurbished, they could not do any work to level the stand out at passenger boarding point to get compliance, due to the shops and infrastructure underneath.

Arriva decided to operate from Stand 8 to align the Guisborough (and at the time) Whitby directional services together, as ensure compliance with the DDA going forward. However, due to the loads, last year the X93 was delaying the 5/5A - so this year it will share Stand 9 with Service 9 which presumably has smaller bulk loads from the bus station in comparison to 5/5A.

I believe the turnaround time at the end of the routes has increased from 8 minutes at each end (last year summer timetable) to around 15 in Scarborough and 20 in Middlesbrough. The short workings do not interwork with the long workings either. The timetable all year around is therefore standard from May, with additional trips 'dropping in' over the summer. This is one big improvement in my eyes.

Lets be honest though, is the timetable really the issue? The Omnicities seem to cope with it. Its only since the E400's and the B7's arrived that people keep pointing fingers at the timetable more. Its fairly evident that the vehicles are the problem and Arriva do need to address that going forward. However, like debated many times, the X93 probably could use new kit, but unless someone can build buses at the click of a finger, they needed to do something to replace the E400 in the short term...

(27 Apr 2014, 9:30 am)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Gonna go all Davey Bowyer on people now :p - In the entire Arriva UK fleet, there must have been something more suitable than these b7 Geminis.
Regional management, must be aware of the issues competitors have had, running long distance routes, using cascaded vehicles with the same engine.

Without sounding too pessimistic, I was waiting for comments to appear on the forum on how the vehicles would perform on the hills and now one has appeared, I ain't shocked.
Additional time may have been added to the timetable and it sounds like it is needed - but at what cost?
Day trippers having less time in their chosen destination and stuck on a struggling bus, there and back by the sounds of it.

(27 Apr 2014, 9:42 am)mb134 wrote Totally agree especially with the bit about the B7's got one of the B7's on the X21 the other day (7490 I think) which was around 10-15 minutes late, 2 or 3 weeks ago I saw 7484 on the X21 also and that was around 15 minutes late as well- Haven't seen anymore so Ashington might have figured it out. Do Arriva seriously think that buses that can't cope with a reasonably easy route can cope with the X93?

(27 Apr 2014, 9:51 am)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Granted there may be other factors, such as traffic and loadings that contribute to late running, but the vehicle allocation will play a part too.

I mentioned the alx400 that was on the x1/x2 the other day - that was 30mins late at one point and had the following Gemini on its tail end.
When Tyresmoke had seen it earlier in the day, it was late - but not that far behind schedule.
As the day had gone on, there was obviously a reason it was falling later and later behind time.

(27 Apr 2014, 10:20 am)tyresmoke wrote Problem is the later and later you get, the more and more passengers you start picking up. It happens all the time on our 15s as an example, get 2 minutes late and before you know it you can be 7-8 late with the other one right behind you as he's been picking nobody up! Then the two start fighting and eventually fall behind til the next one catches up. This is why we regularly end up with pairs and sometimes 3s and 4s running around together when it's really busy (Wednesdays for example!).

Of course this is less of an issue on less frequent services but the same applies just over a longer time period. It's also harder to drop one out and get it back on time when you only have a half hourly frequency.

(26 Apr 2014, 11:18 am)VolvoMarkII wrote I can view live data 7 days a week...

(27 Apr 2014, 10:58 am)robisdave15 wrote Perhaps Tyresmoke might like to comment on the use of the radio system on the buses and whether this, plus the fact that most Arriva services are now GPS tracked, would help with timekeeping and reliability on the X93? Just a thought.

(27 Apr 2014, 7:55 pm)robisdave15 wrote You would have this combined with some pro-active 'managrment', plus maybe the occasional spare vehicle / driver would go someway to dealing with some of the issues that affect the running of the X93? It's not always possible and kinda steps into an alien territory for Arriva but why not try these things? Be interesting to see what our man on the inside (Tyresmoke) has to say?