(22 Aug 2014, 9:28 pm)Robert wrote It varies, they obviously monitor loadings pretty carefully across the X30/X31/X70/X71 so they know what boards to allocate the Omnicities to and what boards to allocate the Presidents to. I think it should go back to full decker operation but again but maybe not new vehicles yet. See how well the services cope and see where things go from there.

In my opinion the Omnicities are very unreliable. There must be about five Coasters VOR, and the X70/X71 was allocated at least three renowns yesterday (the Beamish one, 4845 and 4899) but didnt see the other one. Saw 3823, 3889 and 6010 on the X30/X31 yesterday, but didn't see the others however I know a plain Omnicity was allocated to the Red Kite and a Native President to the Diamond.

(22 Aug 2014, 9:28 pm)Robert wrote It varies, they obviously monitor loadings pretty carefully across the X30/X31/X70/X71 so they know what boards to allocate the Omnicities to and what boards to allocate the Presidents to. I think it should go back to full decker operation but again but maybe not new vehicles yet. See how well the services cope and see where things go from there.

No...

It's down to poor allocating of buses - not the monitoring of services which have specific loadings.

ALL four boards on services X70/X71 should be allocated OmniCities.
ALL five boards on services X30/X31 should be allocated Dennis Tridents (3885-89, and if any are unavailable, the Lolynes).
ALL three boards on services 15/15A should be allocated Volvo B7TLs.

No Volvo Olympians should be allocated to normal commercial service work and won't for much longer (or at least the chances will dramatically decrease for the next few months, until they are all withdrawn)...

(22 Aug 2014, 9:38 pm)Dan wrote No...

It's down to poor allocating of buses - not the monitoring of services which have specific loadings.

ALL four boards on services X70/X71 should be allocated OmniCities.
ALL five boards on services X30/X31 should be allocated Dennis Tridents (3885-89, and if any are unavailable, the Lolynes).
ALL three boards on services 15/15A should be allocated Volvo B7TLs.

No Volvo Olympians should be allocated to normal commercial service work and won't for much longer...

Yesterday was a mess then?

Three boards on the X70/X71 were allocated Volvo B10BLE's.
One board on the X30/X31 was allocated a B7TL, another a Olympian.
One board on the Diamond was allocated a Dennis Trident, two others B10BLE's.
One board on the Red Kite was allocated a Red Omnicity.

(22 Aug 2014, 9:40 pm)Tom wrote Yesterday was a mess then?

Three boards on the X70/X71 were allocated Volvo B10BLE's.
One board on the X30/X31 was allocated a B7TL, another a Olympian.
One board on the Diamond was allocated a Dennis Trident, two others B10BLE's.
One board on the Red Kite was allocated a Red Omnicity.

Welcome to the world of Stanley allocations.

They might not put branded vehicles out on the wrong services too frequently, but their corporate liveried vehicle allocations are just dreadful.

Stanley are like Percy Main. They like to put red OmniCitys out to cover for branded vehicles to maintain the level of service, but this comes at the detriment of services X70/X71 and 9 respectively - and then the allocations for every other service are affected as a result. These depots treat corporate liveried vehicles as red spares, and they shouldn't because management has decided that they want those red buses to be allocated to a specfic service and not to act as a spare for every service at that depot.

(22 Aug 2014, 9:44 pm)Dan wrote Welcome to the world of Stanley allocations.

They might not put branded vehicles out on the wrong services too frequently, but their corporate liveried vehicle allocations are just dreadful.

Stanley are like Percy Main. They like to put red OmniCitys out to cover for branded vehicles, but this comes at the detriment of services X70/X71 and 9 respectively - and then the allocations for every other service are affected as a result. These depots treat corporate liveried vehicles as red spares, and they shouldn't because management has decided that they want those red buses to be allocated to a specfic service and not to act as a spare for every service at that depot.

I didn't actually realise Stanley was that bad!
If 5337/5338 were also allocated to the Diamond, then there were at least five Citaros VOR?

(22 Aug 2014, 9:46 pm)Tom wrote I didn't actually realise Stanley was that bad!
If 5337/5338 were also allocated to the Diamond, then there were at least five Citaros VOR?

When push comes to shove, they're not, in comparison to the likes of Riverside, where branded vehicles are the issue opposed to corporate liveried vehicles.

These depots need to learn the difference between allocated spare vehicles and corporate liveried vehicles. Whilst it isn't too great an issue, management wouldn't have decided to allocate a specific batch of buses to a specific set of services if they did not feel this was the best idea.

They often go off on a tangent and make up their own rules, when it comes to allocations. It'll not be long before it's nipped in the bud. Volvo Olympians aren't as appearing out as much as they were a few weeks ago...

When I was there the other day, only two Mercs were VOR. The day beforehand, it was a similar story.

(22 Aug 2014, 9:38 pm)Dan wrote No...

It's down to poor allocating of buses - not the monitoring of services which have specific loadings.

ALL four boards on services X70/X71 should be allocated OmniCities.
ALL five boards on services X30/X31 should be allocated Dennis Tridents (3885-89, and if any are unavailable, the Lolynes).
ALL three boards on services 15/15A should be allocated Volvo B7TLs.

No Volvo Olympians should be allocated to normal commercial service work and won't for much longer (or at least the chances will dramatically decrease for the next few months, until they are all withdrawn)...

So, how come the 08:17 X30 departure from Stanley was ALWAYS operated by an omnicity (and could still be, havent seen that working lately for obvious reasons)? Seems a bit too coincidental that the same board gets the 'spare' for weeks on end. (And that bus stays on aswell).

Also forgot to add that before the Schools broke up 1 President (Trident, not a B7) used to do scholars then head back up to Consett, presumably to operate services X70/X71.

Things may be different now its School Holidays but on School Days that is what occurred.

(22 Aug 2014, 10:01 pm)Robert wrote So, how come the 08:17 X30 departure from Stanley was ALWAYS operated by an omnicity (and could still be, havent seen that working lately for obvious reasons)? Seems a bit too coincidental that the same board gets the 'spare' for weeks on end. (And that bus stays on aswell).

Also forgot to add that before the Schools broke up 1 President (Trident, not a B7) used to do scholars then head back up to Consett, presumably to operate services X70/X71.

Things may be different now its School Holidays but on School Days that is what occurred.

I don't know why it happened, but all I can tell you is that it shouldn't have happened (and you'll just have to take my word on that one as I can't prove this to you). I'm not sure what systems are in place to monitor odd workings (especially corporate liveried vehicles at that), but as soon as management are made aware that Stanley are doing what they like instead of going by the allocations management has set, they will have words.

Aureolin has said this before: who is in charge of the company? Not those on depot level...

The scholar services, so far as I can remember, do not interwork with services X70/X71. Buses are scheduled to head to Consett to act as spare buses, and I'm inclined to suggest this has happened here too - but again, this should have been a Volvo Olympian (won't be in a week's time) and this is showing Stanley's poor allocations.

Percy Main should not have been allocating the Centurion Volvo B10BLEs to service 9, but they did... So much so, enthusiasts deemed it a normal working and customerd ended up referring to the 9's allocation on GNE's Social Media pages as the 'yellow buses'. Management had to go to the cost of repainting these buses as a result, after more than a few complaints...

(23 Aug 2014, 5:53 am)Dan wrote I don't know why it happened, but all I can tell you is that it shouldn't have happened, providing the allocation has not changed for reasons unbeknown to me (and you'll just have to take my word on that one as I can't prove this to you). I'm not sure what systems are in place to monitor odd workings (especially corporate liveried vehicles at that), but as soon as management are made aware that Stanley are doing what they like instead of going by the allocations management has set, they will have words.

Aureolin has said this before: who is in charge of the company? Not those on depot level...

The scholar services, so far as I can remember, do not interwork with services X70/X71. Buses are scheduled to head to Consett to act as spare buses, and I'm inclined to suggest this has happened here too - but again, this should have been a Volvo Olympian (won't be in a week's time) and this is showing Stanley's poor allocations.

Percy Main should not have been allocating the Centurion Volvo B10BLEs to service 9, but they did... So much so, enthusiasts deemed it a normal working and customerd ended up referring to the 9's allocation on GNE's Social Media pages as the 'yellow buses'. Management had to go to the cost of repainting these buses as a result, after more than a few complaints...

If management are unhappy at the depot allocations, then there is an easy solution.

It just takes a few senior management plonked by the side of the road noting the 'improper' workings.
Rather than take the depots word as gospel, proof of breakdown, maintenance etc needs to be provided.
If proof cant be provided or the reasoning isn't good enough - then impose some sort of penalty to the depot.

Similarly, those meeting or exceeding certain performance standards can be rewarded somehow.

If the reward/penalty is financial - we may start seeing improvements.
Similarly, if a depot or staff start losing out, due to the allocator continually allocating incorrectly, I am sure peer pressure will come into play.

The company shouldn't be forced to repaint and incur extra painting costs, due to someone's incompetence.
I have a slight feeling the Percy Main repaints weren't done, just because of the incompetence though.
Disciplinary action is cheaper.

(23 Aug 2014, 8:14 am)Andreos Constantopolous wrote If management are unhappy at the depot allocations, then there is an easy solution.

It just takes a few senior management plonked by the side of the road noting the 'improper' workings.
Rather than take the depots word as gospel, proof of breakdown, maintenance etc needs to be provided.
If proof cant be provided or the reasoning isn't good enough - then impose some sort of penalty to the depot.

Similarly, those meeting or exceeding certain performance standards can be rewarded somehow.

If the reward/penalty is financial - we may start seeing improvements.
Similarly, if a depot or staff start losing out, due to the allocator continually allocating incorrectly, I am sure peer pressure will come into play.

The company shouldn't be forced to repaint and incur extra painting costs, due to someone's incompetence.
I have a slight feeling the Percy Main repaints weren't done, just because of the incompetence though.
Disciplinary action is cheaper.

I agree completely, but this needs to come to their attention before they can do anything. I'm doubtful that there will be anything in place to monitor the allocations of corporate liveried vehicles.

Regarding the repaints - the reason why the vehicles were not repainted when they came off the Blaydon Racers and were transferred to Percy Main was to save money. It was thought that an in-house (rather tacky looking) livery design would be cheaper than to repaint all of the vehicles into corporate livery red.

The reason why they ended up being repainted in the end (meaning the company had wasted money branding the vehicles) was simply due to the fact that the branding was not working. The brand had already been diluted due to two Dennis Tridents being allocated to the scholar services that service 307 interworked with, but this was being made even worse by the fact more and more corporate liveried vehicles were being allocated whilst "Centurion" branded vehicles were being allocated to service 9. Given that the Dennis Tridents are Euro 4 because they are CRT-fitted, these vehicles comply with the contract specifications set by the Jarrow - North Shields section of the route and I still cannot fathom why they weren't allocated. Even now, I can't work out why the depots think that they have four spare OmniCitys for the Coaster, when they are to be allocated to service 9... The spare vehicles are the Dennis Tridents, and these should be allocated before anything else.

The only up-side to repainting the vehicles, as I have said previously, was that the book value of the vehicles was going to be increased.

(23 Aug 2014, 5:53 am)Dan wrote I don't know why it happened, but all I can tell you is that it shouldn't have happened (and you'll just have to take my word on that one as I can't prove this to you). I'm not sure what systems are in place to monitor odd workings (especially corporate liveried vehicles at that), but as soon as management are made aware that Stanley are doing what they like instead of going by the allocations management has set, they will have words.

Aureolin has said this before: who is in charge of the company? Not those on depot level...

The scholar services, so far as I can remember, do not interwork with services X70/X71. Buses are scheduled to head to Consett to act as spare buses, and I'm inclined to suggest this has happened here too - but again, this should have been a Volvo Olympian (won't be in a week's time) and this is showing Stanley's poor allocations.

Percy Main should not have been allocating the Centurion Volvo B10BLEs to service 9, but they did... So much so, enthusiasts deemed it a normal working and customerd ended up referring to the 9's allocation on GNE's Social Media pages as the 'yellow buses'. Management had to go to the cost of repainting these buses as a result, after more than a few complaints...

Service 822 was always a President and headed up to Consett. Wasnt always but it was very rare that it was an Olympian. Again, i just cant find that putting the same sort of bus on the same route for weeks on end, just like the omnicity. Doubt Percy Main (or any other depot) could do it so why can Stanley? Sorry for all this but as im saying in these posts, its very coincidental that the same thing keeps happening over and over again which could (and does (to me)) suggest that its a normal working and does run onto services X70/X71. Same with the Omnicity, the amount of consecutive weeks one has appeared on the same board it may aswell be classed as a normal working.

(23 Aug 2014, 9:33 am)Robert wrote Service 822 was always a President and headed up to Consett. Wasnt always but it was very rare that it was an Olympian. Again, i just cant find that putting the same sort of bus on the same route for weeks on end, just like the omnicity. Doubt Percy Main (or any other depot) could do it so why can Stanley? Sorry for all this but as im saying in these posts, its very coincidental that the same thing keeps happening over and over again which could (and does (to me)) suggest that its a normal working and does run onto services X70/X71. Same with the Omnicity, the amount of consecutive weeks one has appeared on the same board it may aswell be classed as a normal working.

If this is the case, then all I can suggest is that they've changed the boards for reasons unbeknown to myself... It's certainly an odd one, but sheer lack of competence with allocations (especially with corporate liveried vehicles as mentioned before) is not new, which still puts doubt in my mind that things have changed.

Nevertheless; with the upcoming changes to the scholar services in Stanley, things could change again in the upcoming academic year. Stanley will have fewer Olympians from September, and their entire fleet of remaining Olympians will be depleted ready for the Spring term.

(23 Aug 2014, 9:53 am)Dan wrote If this is the case, then all I can suggest is that they've changed the boards for reasons unbeknown to myself... It's certainly an odd one, but sheer lack of competence with allocations (especially with corporate liveried vehicles as mentioned before) is not new, which still puts doubt in my mind that things have changed.

Nevertheless; with the upcoming changes to the scholar services in Stanley, things could change again in the upcoming academic year. Stanley will have fewer Olympians from September, and their entire fleet of remaining Olympians will be depleted ready for the Spring term.

Aye, ill try and pay attention to all the X30/X31 and Scholars runs to see if there are any buses there that could possibly interwork with normal services. The boards undoubtedly will have changed anyway because of these changes.

the rain

If you still can't help but wonder why the X93 is often late, one reason is people driving at 30mph down the A171 we were stuck behind a VW camper van after we got out of Whitby and they were doing 30mph except on hills where the speed went down to 15mph, we eventually got past them and then we got stuck behind a tractor.

Oh also entering a multi story car park two people were walking up the ramp entering the car park and we beeped the horn and they told us to simmer down.

Dr who... was fucking terrible

(23 Aug 2014, 8:23 pm)Michael wrote Dr who... was fucking terrible

Have yet to watch it in full but will be doing so later today.

From the little bit I have seen, I thought Peter Capaldi was fine in his role. I loved him as Malcolm Tucker and he should do well as the new Doctor.

(23 Aug 2014, 8:23 pm)Michael wrote Dr who... was fucking terrible

Going on what I seen on the news, it has been quite well recieved

Good actor, terrible writing.....Moffet needs to go

The 35B not stopping for me outside Barnes Park...He was not displaying N.I.S nor was the bus full

So far on sky sports.. 10 mins of man u and nothing about Sunderland.... wish they would stop going on and on about man u

(24 Aug 2014, 2:38 pm)Michael wrote So far on sky sports.. 10 mins of man u and nothing about Sunderland.... wish they would stop going on and on about man u

Rooney being given the armband is a big thing apparently...I cannot fucking stand Man Utd on tv...You would think they were playing with themselves

(24 Aug 2014, 3:06 pm)marxistafozzski wrote Rooney being given the armband is a big thing apparently...I cannot fucking stand Man Utd on tv...You would think they were playing with themselves

Its like they own the premier league, sky sports need to look that there is other teams in England, i hope they struggle all season

1-0 Man u.. goal out of no where.....

There good at that...They are a horrible club with even more horrible fans...I would not miss them if Old Trafford had a nuke dropped on it with all the bastards packed inside

(24 Aug 2014, 3:20 pm)marxistafozzski wrote There good at that...They are a horrible club with even more horrible fans...I would not miss them if Old Trafford had a nuke dropped on it with all the bastards packed inside

All of a sudden since the goal.. man u are great.. fuck off sky sports u wankers

(24 Aug 2014, 3:23 pm)Michael wrote All of a sudden since the goal.. man u are great.. fuck off sky sports u wankers

Which, when compared to Sunderland, is close to the truth, nothing special about Sunderland...

(24 Aug 2014, 3:25 pm)marxistafozzski wrote Which, when compared to Sunderland, is close to the truth, nothing special about Sunderland...

Apart from the top 4 teams, to sky sports.. the other 16 are nothing to them

(24 Aug 2014, 3:29 pm)Michael wrote Apart from the top 4 teams, to sky sports.. the other 16 are nothing to them

1-1
Rodwell on home debut