(28 Aug 2016, 8:43 am)GuyParkRoyal wrote Go North East's efforts on the 309 was a disgrace (even making allowances for the traffic). Go North East seemed to put all their efforts into Tall Ships Park & Ride to the detriment of their normal services. Park & Ride had an army of supervision and customer service staff and even their recovery truck on standby but they could not get a 309 to Blyth for over an hour and a half.
I think I will try Nine Bar to see if it is as bad as the GNE 309.
As someone who was supervising the Tall Ships event yesterday for 16 hours, I can only say that Go North East did the best they possibly could (for both ensuring service 309 was operating well and making sure the Park & Ride services operated smoothly too).
What you also have to remember is that Go North East would have been contracted to provide a certain number of supervisors for the Tall Ships event. It's difficult to therefore compare the level of supervision for this event and their normal commercial service which operates to Blyth - but Go North East did go above and beyond to provide extra supervisors at this event, on top of those contracted, to monitor service 309 'on the road', so to speak.
Arriva were always going to be in the better position to ensure there was an even headway on services departing Blyth, given the depot's close proximity to the bus station. It would be a lot more difficult for Go North East to do this - but what intending passengers don't see is the work going on behind the scenes in the Service Delivery Centre to run a good service.