(23 May 2024, 10:52 am)Lewispark1509 wrote I've noticed this morning that Percy Main had a 'little oopsie' moment and had a number of services running late, and some not running at all.

Whoever is running Percy Main depot (and the drivers) need a strong word but you'd be better off talking to a brick wall. I've listed all the buses this morning that ran late for no apparent reason and have sent them to Nexus. But then again, Nexus is just as bad as Go North East. If not, worse.

18A: Byker [M] - Longbenton
Due out of Byker Metro at 7:20 didn't run until 8:50 throughout.

317: Whitley Bay - Wallsend
6:43 to turn up half an hour late, BEHIND the 7:13 bus, resulted in the returning 7:57 trip from Whitley Bay not run from Whitley Bay to North Shields, with no bus to replace lost sections.

7:43 from Wallsend to WB commenced at North Shields Ferry Landing at 8:31, although due at 8:26. Tracking also shows it being buses first run of the day.

8:19 trip somehow got 30 minutes late and terminated at Percy Main. No bus to replace lost section onwards to Whitley Bay. Returning 9:27 trip to Wallsend was replaced, however, bus commenced at Malvern Road.

354: Newcastle - North Shields
6:29 trip out of Newcastle didn't commence until Silverlink.

(23 May 2024, 11:08 am)f schoolStorx wrote Looks like a resource issue to me rather than missing things by accident. Just had a look and some of them are dropping off school runs which suggests that things are desperate there again.

Might aswell join the other 2 depots further North which are an abomination again today.

Things are bad when Gateshead Central Taxis are the reliable operator in SE Northumberland / North Tyneside.

https://www.bustimes.org/vehicles/gnel-6102?date=2024-05-23 - Example of one of them.

(23 May 2024, 10:52 am)Lewispark1509 wrote I've noticed this morning that Percy Main had a 'little oopsie' moment and had a number of services running late, and some not running at all.

Whoever is running Percy Main depot (and the drivers) need a strong word but you'd be better off talking to a brick wall. I've listed all the buses this morning that ran late for no apparent reason and have sent them to Nexus. But then again, Nexus is just as bad as Go North East. If not, worse.

18A: Byker [M] - Longbenton
Due out of Byker Metro at 7:20 didn't run until 8:50 throughout.

317: Whitley Bay - Wallsend
6:43 to turn up half an hour late, BEHIND the 7:13 bus, resulted in the returning 7:57 trip from Whitley Bay not run from Whitley Bay to North Shields, with no bus to replace lost sections.

7:43 from Wallsend to WB commenced at North Shields Ferry Landing at 8:31, although due at 8:26. Tracking also shows it being buses first run of the day.

8:19 trip somehow got 30 minutes late and terminated at Percy Main. No bus to replace lost section onwards to Whitley Bay. Returning 9:27 trip to Wallsend was replaced, however, bus commenced at Malvern Road.

354: Newcastle - North Shields
6:29 trip out of Newcastle didn't commence until Silverlink.

(23 May 2024, 11:08 am)Storx wrote Looks like a resource issue to me rather than missing things by accident. Just had a look and some of them are dropping off school runs which suggests that things are desperate there again.

Might aswell join the other 2 depots further North which are an abomination again today.

Things are bad when Gateshead Central Taxis are the reliable operator in SE Northumberland / North Tyneside.

https://www.bustimes.org/vehicles/gnel-6102?date=2024-05-23 - Example of one of them.

(23 May 2024, 11:52 am)Shrek wrote Talking to a driver the other day, I'm going to put money on them having reliability issues rather soon. It sounds like in the bus industry, a change of employer doesn't always improve your job satisfaction.

(23 May 2024, 11:52 am)Shrek wrote Talking to a driver the other day, I'm going to put money on them having reliability issues rather soon. It sounds like in the bus industry, a change of employer doesn't always improve your job satisfaction.

(23 May 2024, 12:04 pm)Storx wrote Not surprised to be honest. It'll be interesting to see how they deal with the next upcoming pay deal considering Arriva just nearly went on strike going from the exact amount of pay that GNE are currently on and inflation has dropped substantially since then aswell.

Come in with a 3% or so and things could become ugly. Time for round 2?

(23 May 2024, 12:35 pm)mb134 wrote Wasn't the GNE deal a 2 year agreement?

(23 May 2024, 12:35 pm)mb134 wrote Wasn't the GNE deal a 2 year agreement?

(23 May 2024, 12:35 pm)mb134 wrote Wasn't the GNE deal a 2 year agreement?

(23 May 2024, 12:57 pm)Storx wrote Not too sure now that you said it. Did they ever agree to the second year? I thought the union wanted that bit wiped out.

Edit: just checked looks like they did and it's only a 4% deal which isn't going to be very attractive considering it's 20p below Stagecoach and Arriva and that's before their respective next deals come in.

(23 May 2024, 10:52 am)Lewispark1509 wrote I've noticed this morning that Percy Main had a 'little oopsie' moment and had a number of services running late, and some not running at all.

Whoever is running Percy Main depot (and the drivers) need a strong word but you'd be better off talking to a brick wall. I've listed all the buses this morning that ran late for no apparent reason and have sent them to Nexus. But then again, Nexus is just as bad as Go North East. If not, worse.

18A: Byker [M] - Longbenton
Due out of Byker Metro at 7:20 didn't run until 8:50 throughout.

317: Whitley Bay - Wallsend
6:43 to turn up half an hour late, BEHIND the 7:13 bus, resulted in the returning 7:57 trip from Whitley Bay not run from Whitley Bay to North Shields, with no bus to replace lost sections.

7:43 from Wallsend to WB commenced at North Shields Ferry Landing at 8:31, although due at 8:26. Tracking also shows it being buses first run of the day.

8:19 trip somehow got 30 minutes late and terminated at Percy Main. No bus to replace lost section onwards to Whitley Bay. Returning 9:27 trip to Wallsend was replaced, however, bus commenced at Malvern Road.

354: Newcastle - North Shields
6:29 trip out of Newcastle didn't commence until Silverlink.

(23 May 2024, 11:52 am)V514DFT wrote I know the 307 i was waiting for yesterday was 10 minutes late, it was due on Verne Road at 11:36, so i opted for a Taxi (i was in a lousy mood anyway)

(23 May 2024, 5:51 pm)busmanT wrote I trust that you have reported these to GNE customer services, and that these are real “on the ground observations” rather than things you’ve seen on bustimes.org.

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307 and 309 seem to be carrying a lot of extra passengers recently due to the large number of journeys on Arriva 306/308 that are cancelled. Extra passengers generally results in late running.
Arriva performance on the coast road isn’t good even when they are running. 

(23 May 2024, 11:43 pm)Rapidsnap wrote Did you check other operators to see how they performed this morning.

Also sorely relying on bus times can be a bad idea as it's not 100 percent reliable.

(23 May 2024, 11:43 pm)Rapidsnap wrote Did you check other operators to see how they performed this morning.

Also sorely relying on bus times can be a bad idea as it's not 100 percent reliable.

(23 May 2024, 5:51 pm)busmanT wrote I trust that you have reported these to GNE customer services, and that these are real “on the ground observations” rather than things you’ve seen on bustimes.org.

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307 and 309 seem to be carrying a lot of extra passengers recently due to the large number of journeys on Arriva 306/308 that are cancelled. Extra passengers generally results in late running.
Arriva performance on the coast road isn’t good even when they are running. 

(24 May 2024, 10:01 am)L469 YVK wrote If Arriva are having operational issues on the Coast Road and GNE are having subsequent operational issues.....could NTCA not have interim powers to extend on the existing qualifying agreement to franchise the 306/307/308/309?

(23 May 2024, 5:51 pm)busmanT wrote I trust that you have reported these to GNE customer services, and that these are real “on the ground observations” rather than things you’ve seen on bustimes.org.

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307 and 309 seem to be carrying a lot of extra passengers recently due to the large number of journeys on Arriva 306/308 that are cancelled. Extra passengers generally results in late running.
Arriva performance on the coast road isn’t good even when they are running. 

(24 May 2024, 6:32 am)Jimmi wrote It's worth noting that there's been faults with tracking with Ticketer equipment again recently, often resulting in buses which appear to be missing but are actually running.

(24 May 2024, 9:46 am)Thomas12 wrote Obviously most of these issues are down to the Streetlites being horrendous.

The 354 issue highlighted above didn’t operate the full route yesterday as a Streetlite broke down on the 307 it operates before the 354. Another two ended up breaking on the 317, and others on the 1.

Not sure what the issue is with them but they’ve obviously got major issues.

(25 May 2024, 12:15 pm)tLewispark1509 wrote I am aware and full accept bus times isn't 100% reliable, but it doesn't fully cancel out the fact sometimes it is reliable, which is why I have contacted the operator to confirm. 99% of the time, both the operator and Nexus have confirmed the tracking was correct (nothing specifically mentioned, I mean in general). I'm mostly referring to BusTimes showing buses being indisputably late and going the wrong way. For example the 18A service the other morning when it didn't operate until 8.50.

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I've also been told by a few Walkergate drivers that GNE are on their last warning with the 317s. By default it will go back to Stagecoach unless another operator puts a bid in for it. GCT aren't allowed to operate it (as in March 2023, GCT put the lowest bid in, but Nexus gave it back to Stagecoach in fears GCT wouldn't run it properly), and Arriva will probably not even want to run it. It would be nice to see smaller yet more reliable operators to run it, like JH for example.

(25 May 2024, 12:15 pm)Lewispark1509 wrote I am aware and full accept bus times isn't 100% reliable, but it doesn't fully cancel out the fact sometimes it is reliable, which is why I have contacted the operator to confirm. 99% of the time, both the operator and Nexus have confirmed the tracking was correct (nothing specifically mentioned, I mean in general). I'm mostly referring to BusTimes showing buses being indisputably late and going the wrong way. For example the 18A service the other morning when it didn't operate until 8.50.

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I've also been told by a few Walkergate drivers that GNE are on their last warning with the 317s. By default it will go back to Stagecoach unless another operator puts a bid in for it. GCT aren't allowed to operate it (as in March 2023, GCT put the lowest bid in, but Nexus gave it back to Stagecoach in fears GCT wouldn't run it properly), and Arriva will probably not even want to run it. It would be nice to see smaller yet more reliable operators to run it, like JH for example.