(15 Aug 2022, 2:15 pm)Adrian wrote Spotted this tweet for a service that is being reduced to every hour...



So what's the message nowadays? We need more people to use public transport, but not too many, or we can't operate to our timetable?

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(15 Aug 2022, 4:50 pm)ne14ne1 wrote So residents would need to remember the times and which side of the street to stand for each of the times? Gotcha

(I’m talking about since they made the clockwise and anti-clockwise variations).

(15 Aug 2022, 5:11 pm)BusLoverMum wrote That's an improvement on all the ones I've seen that haven't run at all,  from seaham,  due to delays. Likely caused by people wanting to go to the beach in the hot weather *forehead slap*

(15 Aug 2022, 5:26 pm)morritt89 wrote I think it's wrong that passengers have to suffer because of a lack of drivers. I am also aware that apart from sub contracting out routes and scaling back timetables to a skeleton or Sunday service that nothing can be done. Surely (you would hope) that there are alarm bells ringing in GNE towers on how to retain current drivers rather than constantly focus on recruitment.
The changes that are being made now, could have (and should have?) been made sooner to help stem the flow of cancelled journeys. Wasn't there a post somewhere on here that said cancellations would be very minimal once the last lot of changes went ahead? I remain skeptical as to whether the situation will improve when the new contracts start.

(15 Aug 2022, 3:03 pm)Storx wrote I might be missing something here but how on earth are you supposed to know which way the Q3 does the loop when they're both the same number...

(15 Aug 2022, 12:28 pm)KingSlayerRBLX wrote Did not expect to see the X20 to be temporarily withdrawn. Another X-Lines down the drain :|

(15 Aug 2022, 6:58 pm)DeltaMan wrote Yeah, some of those changes definitely aren't "temporary". Are we really going to see GNE restore the 12 back to 3 an hour (heaven forbid 4 an hour) when it's going to cost an extra bus and 2 or 3 drivers a day?

No chance.

With frequency reduced and the inevitable drop in passengers that will bring, the next logical step will be to withdraw it completely with a change to the 49 group of services and customers told to change at Blaydon!

A prime example of how to destroy a bus route.

(15 Aug 2022, 4:33 pm)Malarkey wrote I'm all for having such things as Delay Repay for delayed/cancelled journey's over 30 Minutes like they have on the trains, to be fair with Go North East they reluctantly refund fares to their customers but not without the customer arguing the toss about first though as I've experienced on more than one occasion.

I do personally think that it unfair that despite all these constant changes to services over the past 12 months that it's passengers that pay the penalty through fare increases when services have been significantly reduced, I feel the recent fare increases should be reversed as they are now unjustified and in effect passengers are now paying a premium rate for less than half the service they had a year ago, you wouldn't pay a full months line rental for your Mobile/TV/Broadband if you have a number of service outages in the month, so why should you still a pay for a monthly bus pass for example if you've been impacted by a number of delays/cancellations.

Operators should be fined by the likes of Nexus/Local Councils for non-operation of services if it means improving punctuality of bus services that they operate
and that if there is a history of offences within a short period then the contract should be revoked and retendered for another operator to take over.

(15 Aug 2022, 5:26 pm)morritt89 wrote I think it's wrong that passengers have to suffer because of a lack of drivers. I am also aware that apart from sub contracting out routes and scaling back timetables to a skeleton or Sunday service that nothing can be done. Surely (you would hope) that there are alarm bells ringing in GNE towers on how to retain current drivers rather than constantly focus on recruitment.
The changes that are being made now, could have (and should have?) been made sooner to help stem the flow of cancelled journeys. Wasn't there a post somewhere on here that said cancellations would be very minimal once the last lot of changes went ahead? I remain skeptical as to whether the situation will improve when the new contracts start.

(15 Aug 2022, 6:58 pm)DeltaMan wrote Yeah, some of those changes definitely aren't "temporary". Are we really going to see GNE restore the 12 back to 3 an hour (heaven forbid 4 an hour) when it's going to cost an extra bus and 2 or 3 drivers a day?

No chance.

With frequency reduced and the inevitable drop in passengers that will bring, the next logical step will be to withdraw it completely with a change to the 49 group of services and customers told to change at Blaydon!

A prime example of how to destroy a bus route.

(15 Aug 2022, 8:07 pm)Adrian wrote Well, that's the whole issue with deregulation, isn't it? It's allowed buses to be run like the Wild West for far too long. 

On complaints about regular disruption/cancelled journeys, you can always use the Bus Appeals Body - https://bususers.org/passengers/complaints/complaints-process/. More people should do so really.

Poor operation of contracted services, I agree should result in the removal of contracts and a temporary ban from the bidding process. Not to mention retrieval of the cost to retender the service.


You'd think there are alarm bells ringing at most operators, but it doesn't seem to be sinking in that they have a real problem in recruitment and retention. Furlough during the pandemic has only accelerated that, with drivers who were furloughed finding that they are better off elsewhere. 

I agree, these changes should have been the ones made not even a month ago. It feels like we're in a spiral of continuously firefighting, rather than having a strategy. Though I do wonder how much of this is to divert resource for the contracted stuff... maybe this is #SeptemberReady that the MD keeps mentioning on twitter? Either that, or it's one big coincidence that schools and the Metro Flow closure start around the same.


I tend to agree. I can't see the X20 being re-introduced for example, when they've went to the trouble of extending and splitting the 20 into 20/20A.

The Washington 82 remains the best example I've seen of how to destroy a bus route, followed closely by the old 99.   

(15 Aug 2022, 5:11 pm)BusLoverMum wrote That's an improvement on all the ones I've seen that haven't run at all,  from seaham,  due to delays. Likely caused by people wanting to go to the beach in the hot weather *forehead slap*

(15 Aug 2022, 5:13 pm)Malarkey wrote I spoke to a driver at CLS on Saturday who was going onto the 71 and he said with the weather it is literally grid locked in and out of Seaham more than likely due to insufficient car parking spaces, maybe Durham County Council should look at putting additionally parking in place on Spectrum Business Park or alternatively have a P&R Service from Seaham to Dalton Park to reduce parking issues.

(15 Aug 2022, 9:47 pm)Drifter60 wrote The same town that’s had the X7 withdrawn post COVID lockdowns, the 62 withdrawn last month, now the 65 being dropped to hourly and Sunday service already stripped back & the 60 even reduced to 4 buses ph instead of 5. Is it any wonder there’s lots of cars going to Seaham? Most areas either have no direct link or they have a daytime only hourly service - I’d take my car too.

(15 Aug 2022, 2:18 pm)Malarkey wrote Since that was released in September 2021 we have had the following:

September 2021 Fit For The Future Guide: https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/getting-buses-fit-future-changes-services-5-september
October 2021 - https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/service-increases-and-changes-31-october
January 2022 - https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/service-changes-30-january
March 2022 - https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/hexham-service-changes-monday-14-march
May 2022 Consultation - https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/consultation
June 2022 Consultation Update - https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/update-service-changes-24-july
July 2022 Consultation Confirmed Changes - https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/service-changes-24-july
August 2022 September Changes - https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/service-changes-3-september

If anything i'd say they've made them "Unfit For The Future" in past 12 months with the amount of cuts they've done, they've almost halved the service operations yet still don't have enough drivers because of taking on a number of contracts that are out of there operational remit such as Scholars/Works Contracts, Kynren/Durham Cricket P&R's & T&W Metro Replacements. I certainly agree with what another member said on here a few days ago in that Go North East should be focusing on there commercial operations and working within there means rather than taking on excessive amounts of contracts that results in service cancellation to facilitate the latter to operate as a priority at the paying customers expense.

(15 Aug 2022, 2:41 pm)Drifter60 wrote I really hope some of these changes are just temporary the A690 corridor only having 4 bph seems very sparse when considering you had the 20 every 10 minutes in the past + the 55 in various guises twice an hour & 2 buses extra, each hour with the X20. The 65 changes mean there’s now only 1 bus to Seaham from Murton each hour, when there was 3 ph back in July.

(16 Aug 2022, 1:08 am)ALavery wrote I Can’t wait to see how horrendously packed the buses are going to be once i go back to college. The 62 carried a majority of passengers heading there and then so did the 55 and X20 (I go to the one on durham road) now they’re all gone and the frequencies have gone to sh*t, and everyone’s gonna be crammed like sardines. “Better than ever!”

(15 Aug 2022, 6:58 pm)DeltaMan wrote Yeah, some of those changes definitely aren't "temporary". Are we really going to see GNE restore the 12 back to 3 an hour (heaven forbid 4 an hour) when it's going to cost an extra bus and 2 or 3 drivers a day?

No chance.

With frequency reduced and the inevitable drop in passengers that will bring, the next logical step will be to withdraw it completely with a change to the 49 group of services and customers told to change at Blaydon!

A prime example of how to destroy a bus route.

(15 Aug 2022, 3:03 pm)Storx wrote I might be missing something here but how on earth are you supposed to know which way the Q3 does the loop when they're both the same number...

(16 Aug 2022, 12:35 pm)busmanT wrote Ask the already beleaguered driver of course!!

(16 Aug 2022, 12:42 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Or just look at the timetable at the stop?

I know having separate numbers wouldn't really help me in the slightest, after years of using it, I still have no idea which way round the 93/94 go!

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(15 Aug 2022, 11:56 pm)Ambassador wrote Be interested to know how many of that commercial team are lifers or graduates blinded by lifers.

I’d get rid of the lot of them, the entire management is a dictionary definition of failure.

(15 Aug 2022, 6:58 pm)DeltaMan wrote Yeah, some of those changes definitely aren't "temporary". Are we really going to see GNE restore the 12 back to 3 an hour (heaven forbid 4 an hour) when it's going to cost an extra bus and 2 or 3 drivers a day?

No chance.

With frequency reduced and the inevitable drop in passengers that will bring, the next logical step will be to withdraw it completely with a change to the 49 group of services and customers told to change at Blaydon!

A prime example of how to destroy a bus route.

(16 Aug 2022, 1:43 pm)MurdnunoC wrote And, of course, once those passengers currently using the service are gone; they're gone. Increasing the frequency and reinstating the route to what it was won't bring them back.

(16 Aug 2022, 4:39 pm)Adrian wrote Currently on board an apparently disposable X20 service. Despite leaving a couple mins after a 20 with a decent load, we're almost into Houghton with just about every seat in a Citaro taken up.

And I know its a peak journey out of Durham, but its on the same corridor that is getting 2 of the 6 buses per hour cut.

Whilst I'd obviously take a disruption free timetable over one full of disruption and gaps, I wonder whether these Streetlites on the 20 will have the same ability at managing loads, versus say the reduction on the combined 10 services with deckers.

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(16 Aug 2022, 4:39 pm)Adrian wrote Currently on board an apparently disposable X20 service. Despite leaving a couple mins after a 20 with a decent load, we're almost into Houghton with just about every seat in a Citaro taken up.

And I know its a peak journey out of Durham, but its on the same corridor that is getting 2 of the 6 buses per hour cut.

Whilst I'd obviously take a disruption free timetable over one full of disruption and gaps, I wonder whether these Streetlites on the 20 will have the same ability at managing loads, versus say the reduction on the combined 10 services with deckers.

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