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+--- Thread: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage (/showthread.php?tid=3237)
Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - L469 YVK - 29 Dec 2020
Now, I'm not saying any other operator is perfect.
But 11 full journeys dropped in a circa 24 hour period! That screams investment is needed badly!
Doubt Arriva will invest though sadly.
RE: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - PH - BQA - 29 Dec 2020
(29 Dec 2020, 11:23 am)L469 YVK wrote Now, I'm not saying any other operator is perfect.
But 11 full journeys dropped in a circa 24 hour period! That screams investment is needed badly!
Doubt Arriva will invest though sadly.
11 full journeys in 24 hours is one or two buses extra VOR. If it continues for a week then, yes, there's clearly a big issue - however you can't really base it on a 24 hour period.
Virtually all of their buses will have been parked up since the 24th, which is likely a contributing factor. Standard of Blyth maintenance being another - it's never been fantastic.
Of course investment is needed, but realistically all depots will have a bad couple of days every now and then.
RE: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - tyresmoke - 29 Dec 2020
The issue as I see it at Arriva in NE is a lot of the fleet is coming up to renewal age and there doesn’t appear to be any plan in place to sort this out. The Blyth fleet is almost entirely 2009-2012 VDLs on the front line services, so between 8-11 years old. Midlife currently but coming up towards the age when they need to be booted to secondary services. The same is true across all depots though - look at Darlington as a good example. 15 year old Scanias still putting in sterling service on front line express routes, and the town fleet is pretty much made up of a selection of 9-11 year old Solos. The B9s on the X93 for example are about to go into their 6th summer on a very demanding service, it’s about time they were given an easier life.
The issue with all of this is there is nothing coming in to replace anything, so the fleet is being pushed to work longer into their lives where reliability is going to start dropping off. That may be fine on some of the more backwater routes like Durham’s 56/57 or Ashington’s 35, but it won’t be accepted on front line services.
RE: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - Jimmi - 29 Dec 2020
(29 Dec 2020, 11:23 am)L469 YVK wrote Now, I'm not saying any other operator is perfect.Many of the breakdowns occurred on Newcastle bound journeys so many ended up being round trips dropped bunking the number of journeys not ran up, the other issue is if a bus goes down then the driver is stuck with the broken down bus so even if there's another bus avaliable, there may not be a driver to drop into the route to pick a journey up.
But 11 full journeys dropped in a circa 24 hour period! That screams investment is needed badly!
Doubt Arriva will invest though sadly.
I'd say this is still a fairly regular number of breakdowns to occur in one 24 hour period for a depot, it just so happened all cancelled journeys were posted via the company's social medias, you'll get similar numbers if you go through say, the GNE Facebook on any given day or any other firm that regularly posts service disruptions.
RE: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - GNE6312 - 29 Dec 2020
(29 Dec 2020, 11:23 am)L469 YVK wrote Now, I'm not saying any other operator is perfect.11 journeys dropped how?
But 11 full journeys dropped in a circa 24 hour period! That screams investment is needed badly!
Doubt Arriva will invest though sadly.
RE: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - Storx - 29 Dec 2020
It's not the Gemini's / Pulsars that are the problem at Blyth. It's the minibuses which are the problem, the same as Ashington.
1760 / 1766 / 1773 have all been off the road for over a week now and 2816 has seemed to have developed a fault today aswell resulting 1401 / 1402 / 1501 being on locals, it was worse yesterday. It leaves all Geminis being out pretty much every day with barely any time to do maintenence without dropping runs.
It's the same at Ashington where all 3 Solos are off the road and a MPD has somehow ended up on the X14 today with a decker, an Omnicity and a Streetlite on the 57/57A. (The other Streetlite being off the road).
Oh and btw might want to check Riverside depot out as it's been much worse there today. Just saying.
RE: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - Citaro5338 - 29 Dec 2020
Sorry if I'm using the wrong forum but does anyone know what is going on with Ashingtons solos as they haven't been out for a while . 2809 has not been out since the 7th Dec. 2812 hasn't been out since Xmas eve and 2813 hasn't been out since the 13th Dec
RE: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - PH - BQA - 29 Dec 2020
(29 Dec 2020, 9:18 pm)Citaro5338 wrote Sorry if I'm using the wrong forum but does anyone know what is going on with Ashingtons solos as they haven't been out for a while . 2809 has not been out since the 7th Dec. 2812 hasn't been out since Xmas eve and 2813 hasn't been out since the 13th Dec
They're absolutely shot. 2 of them, when working, are out all day every day and it's showing. 2812, I think, has been beyond problematic for a while.
RE: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - Storx - 29 Dec 2020
(29 Dec 2020, 10:11 pm)mb134 wrote They're absolutely shot. 2 of them, when working, are out all day every day and it's showing. 2812, I think, has been beyond problematic for a while.
2809, hasn't managed a full day since the 30th November and that was just for a week or so.
RE: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - Driver9*** - 30 Dec 2020
They're obviously hoping another (proper) lockdown is on the way so they can reduce the service numbers and get the buses in most need of repair off the road for overdue work. The state of the fleet at Blyth is an absolute disgrace.
RE: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - Andreos1 - 30 Dec 2020
(29 Dec 2020, 1:03 pm)Jimmi wrote Many of the breakdowns occurred on Newcastle bound journeys so many ended up being round trips dropped bunking the number of journeys not ran up, the other issue is if a bus goes down then the driver is stuck with the broken down bus so even if there's another bus avaliable, there may not be a driver to drop into the route to pick a journey up.
I'd say this is still a fairly regular number of breakdowns to occur in one 24 hour period for a depot, it just so happened all cancelled journeys were posted via the company's social medias, you'll get similar numbers if you go through say, the GNE Facebook on any given day or any other firm that regularly posts service disruptions.
(29 Dec 2020, 5:57 pm)Storx wrote It's not the Gemini's / Pulsars that are the problem at Blyth. It's the minibuses which are the problem, the same as Ashington.
1760 / 1766 / 1773 have all been off the road for over a week now and 2816 has seemed to have developed a fault today aswell resulting 1401 / 1402 / 1501 being on locals, it was worse yesterday. It leaves all Geminis being out pretty much every day with barely any time to do maintenence without dropping runs.
It's the same at Ashington where all 3 Solos are off the road and a MPD has somehow ended up on the X14 today with a decker, an Omnicity and a Streetlite on the 57/57A. (The other Streetlite being off the road).
Oh and btw might want to check Riverside depot out as it's been much worse there today. Just saying.
I was reading this last night, but was too tired to respond.
The way operators and tocs use social media to outline and detail disruption has been a bone of contention for a while now.
The lack of clarity or detail is one which frustrates me.
In the first screenshot, I've outlined two 'non-runners' this morning from GNE.
In my mind, there should be some sort of information about the next portion of the drivers duty. For example, if that 27 isn't running, does that mean there's going to be a gap in a return leg or on the 26? Passengers seeing that tweet about the 27 may not understand or appreciate the knock-on effect.
Ditto with the 78. What are the implications for those travelling between South Stanley and Leadgate or Consett? If they can get to the bus station at Stanley, will there be a 78 from there or are they going to need to look at other options?
In the second screenshot, you can see a thread outlining information about issues on the network. Whilst there is a lot of information missing, I do find the connected tweets useful.
A couple of years back, I was doing a bit of work with VTEC and had a lot of dealings with their innovation team in York. Apart from it being like Q's office from the James Bond films, there was a lot going on. I was given early access to a version of their train mapper tool and in the summer of 2017 used it fully for the first time. Needless to say, it was when I was travelling with Mrs C and the three C's and there was a boat-load of disruption across the ECML.
I've shared some of the feedback in an extract of an email I sent them.
There were all sorts of phonecalls and meetings following on from my email and the feedback I provided and some tweaks were eventually made.
Either way, there was still the need to use multiple sources as not all of the information was contained within the one source.
A bit like the GNE and Northern examples above.
RE: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - L469 YVK - 30 Dec 2020
(30 Dec 2020, 12:16 am)Driver9*** wrote They're obviously hoping another (proper) lockdown is on the way so they can reduce the service numbers and get the buses in most need of repair off the road for overdue work. The state of the fleet at Blyth is an absolute disgrace.But the depot back then was looking at National awards back in 2013/14. Back then though, the fleet was a lot newer.
Maybe if Arriva are committed to Northumbria operations going forward, they'll buy wisely and make sure that for every 7-8 vehicles purchased that 1x spare is bought in addition.
The Blyth - Newcastle routes (okay perhaps the X8 & X9 need a bit of a rejigg) are recession proof if managed properly. They get good loads even during antisocial hours.
RE: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - Storx - 30 Dec 2020
(30 Dec 2020, 11:09 am)L469 YVK wrote But the depot back then was looking at National awards back in 2013/14. Back then though, the fleet was a lot newer.
Maybe if Arriva are committed to Northumbria operations going forward, they'll buy wisely and make sure that for every 7-8 vehicles purchased that 1x spare is bought in addition.
The Blyth - Newcastle routes (okay perhaps the X8 & X9 need a bit of a rejigg) are recession proof if managed properly. They get good loads even during antisocial hours.
They have a spare for every 7 - 8 vehicles though or just slightly under? 1 Pulsar and 3 Gemini's for a PVR of 34.
Ashington has a had a nightmare on the 57/57A again this morning though with 3 dropped runs (partially) already after they've decided to put 2809 out for the first time in a month and the usual has happened - https://bustimes.org/vehicles/189805. Seems to be back going again now.
Edit according to bustimes (not sure on reliability) it appears to have broken down again and is now starting short from Delaval.
RE: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - L469 YVK - 30 Dec 2020
(30 Dec 2020, 11:35 am)Storx wrote They have a spare for every 7 - 8 vehicles though or just slightly under?But historically, they didn't order spares when purchasing new vehicles.
GNE since the 2013/14 order year have ordered 1x spare for every 7-8 vehicles purchased give or take a small number of exceptions (B9TL acting as spare for X9/X10 when B5TLs purchased).
Having a good spare vehicle ratio of decent spares will help reliability massively.
RE: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - PH - BQA - 30 Dec 2020
(30 Dec 2020, 11:35 am)Storx wrote They have a spare for every 7 - 8 vehicles though or just slightly under? 1 Pulsar and 3 Gemini's for a PVR of 34.
Ashington has a had a nightmare on the 57/57A again this morning though with 3 dropped runs (partially) already after they've decided to put 2809 out for the first time in a month and the usual has happened - https://bustimes.org/vehicles/189805. Seems to be back going again now.
Edit according to bustimes (not sure on reliability) it appears to have broken down again and is now starting short from Delaval.
2809 has an issue with tracking, it frequently only starts tracking mid run or doesn't bother at all until halfway through a day. AFAIK there were no technical issues with it this morning.
RE: Blyth Issues / Dead mileage - Storx - 30 Dec 2020
(30 Dec 2020, 2:51 pm)mb134 wrote 2809 has an issue with tracking, it frequently only starts tracking mid run or doesn't bother at all until halfway through a day. AFAIK there were no technical issues with it this morning.
Ah that's fair then. Thanks for the info.