(14 Jun 2015, 6:24 am)Dan wrote Some Go North East depots were quite bad for wrong allocations in the past, but senior management have been clamping down on it by producing daily reports which details all non-compliant workings. The depots have to provide a reason for every non-compliant allocation, meaning that they can't just throw buses here, there and everywhere.

There's hardly any instances of a branded vehicle being allocated to a service it shouldn't be from run out now; when there has been instances of this occurring, it's been to keep a bus local to the depot after it has just undergone repairs. It's more or less always later in the day that problems occur - a bus breaks down and the only bus available is a branded bus (which had been allocated as a check car), it's better to allocate that than lose mileage. It's finding a chance to swap both buses over later in the day that poses a challenge, more often than not.

To outsiders looking in, allocations have most definitely not improved at Arriva. Unlike Go North East and other Arriva North East depots, I'm fairly sure Blyth have (several times in the past) allocated branded vehicles to the wrong routes from early doors. I understand that every service leaves Blyth more or less on-time during the day, as they use the spare vehicle in the bus station regardless of the vehicle type, to make this so, but it's the wrong run out allocations Arriva's senior management ought to be working on before they get to the wrong allocations during the day. The depots should be in a position to provide reasoning to Arriva's senior management as to why x, y and z allocations have happened, and then leave it to senior management to increase their spare vehicle allocation or improve reliability of the existing fleet by expanding engineering's budget or providing the depot with a more reliable fleet.

The allocation of "MAX X12" branded VDL Pulsar 1415 to every other route at Belmont besides the X12 on a daily basis is clearly a decision at depot management level (or even higher up) given the amount of times it has happened. Why senior management haven't decided to remove the sub-branding for service X12 and leave it as a generic "MAX" spare (which wouldn't be quite as bad as the situation at present), is beyond me. If Belmont requires an extra double decker to "MAX" specification to release 1415 to another depot, it's up to senior management to find it, whether it's an internal asset or an external asset that has to be bought in.

Fair enough  that seems a pretty good way of going about stopping it actually. 

In terms of Blyth, there seems to be an underlying problem there, that I'm pretty sure is down to either their fleet, or the way that they look after it. A few examples:

The two originally Blyth based E400's that didn't spend an awful lot of time on the X93 (7505/6) are shot, and have been since they arrived at Ashington pretty much. 

At Easter I rode several Gemini's, all bar one if I recall correctly, were awful. 

You also have to look at why the services get that late, and in my view it is either down to the vehicles, the drivers, or the timetable. Just an example, my X21 in the morning leaves Newcastle a minute before an X13, frequently this week, while my X21 has left on time, the X13 has left late. So, same traffic from Newcastle to Cramlington, so it can't be down to that, and although the X13 has a minute less to do the stint in, it always seems to get later, while the X21 makes time up, or will run 1 early for a bit.

Additionally, last summer I arrived in Blyth on a Gemini, bang on time, it was replaced, seemingly because they could, with another vehicle, no obvious reason, if they have the same attitude now, this explains everything