(18 Oct 2015, 5:29 pm)Shrek wrote I find all services passing Quorum and Four Lane Ends are struggling to keep time since the road changes in that area. The x63 is often late and you regularly see them following each other, even the 353 which only has to get into Four Lane Ends station and out again missing the worst points is regularly running late. It's not just Arriva struggling around this area.
It's not that they're running late because of Quorum. On the Blyth to Quorum sections of both routes, they're not getting enough time to complete the journey comfortably. And I know that high loads can cause small delays particularly on the Quorum and Cobalt routes and I've often seen the 309 run 5 minutes late on Mondays and Tuesdays (where the NT week savers are purchased etc) but only twice have I saw or experienced a morning 309 running 10-15 minutes late and never running at them extremes on a regular basis like the X7 / X8.
Well put it this way, if Arriva don't monitor the reliability of their Blyth services properly, then they could be heading for a stern warning from the TC or fine of £500? per vehicle not only for Blyth depot but if the TC wanted to impose the maximum penalty, all the vehicles that Jesmond and Ashington have too for the whole 'Northumbria' license.