(26 Dec 2013, 8:19 pm)busman101 wrote All the information that people needed was shown in the links provided in messages today and they do work from mobile's too, however, some people don't seem to be able to read the information that's there for them.
I agree.
Service information for Boxing Day was released quite a while ago. If I could prepare the journeys which I was going to make for my day of photography, then any member of the public could also refer to timetables for their journeys.
I've seen many complaints on Go North East's Facebook page today about the lack of a normal Monday to Friday bus service. One person even complained about having a weekly ticket which cost £21.80 and he was unable to use it this morning as no buses operated in his area before x time, so he had to pay someone £10 to get to work...
If that were me, I'd have checked online to see what the operation was going to be like prior to purchasing a ticket! You wouldn't buy an advance single ticket for a train if you couldn't get to the station on time, so what's the difference with buses?
Service information was given to people well in advance and throughout the day yesterday via announcements - anyone with an internet connection (whether it's on a mobile, tablet or laptop/PC) can check the website. Let's face it - if they can complain on a Facebook page, they can access the information for Boxing Day operations.
Despite this, I saw many people yesterday (including younger people who most definitely have access to the above devices) waiting around for buses and referring to the timetables at bus stops.
A young lad about the same age as me had waited for the 56 for an hour thinking it was a Sunday service, but the first one from Sunderland wasn't scheduled to come until 08:50am...
Rear advertisements have been placed on buses for the convenience of customers I gather, to alert them of operations around the Christmas/New Year period, notices have been pinned on the usual boards on-board buses, GNE's website has had the information available for quite some time and even their Social Media reps have been issuing the information for quite some time too...
...And for what purpose? Customers have ignored all of the above, and are still confused.
(26 Dec 2013, 9:32 pm)aureolin wrote Is this on the wall boards or paper timetables? Seems a bit illogical to shift stand allocations round for the sake of a day, unless the special timetables meant several services departing from the same stand at the same time? Haven't been anywhere by bus today so not noticed anything, bar a red Solar and a black Solar working the 4.
In my example, it was the 58 at Heworth.
The boards with all of the times of buses had the 58 down as 8, all of the Newcastle-bound services were down as using the stand the Washington-bound services use and vice versa... Drivers still used the same stands though!
(26 Dec 2013, 10:31 pm)tyresmoke wrote Probably worth mentioning that Stagecoach were manning their twitter page today (indeed I can even see some posts put up yesterday!)
Is this Twitter page manned by enthusiasts or an official Customer Services team? I ask because I've only ever seen enthusiasts discuss it, and I've not actually seen any announcements on-board Stagecoach buses with information about it. I can't find any mention of it on the Stagecoach website either.
If it's enthusiasts (or even drivers who are enthusiasts) which run it, it does not surprise me that someone was online yesterday or indeed Christmas Day.
(27 Dec 2013, 2:40 am)Coastliner700 wrote I have worked at customer services at both Go North East and Stagecoach South. Sadly I agree customers should be glad that any service is provided on Boxing Day at all. Customers are provided information and in some cases well in advance. If they leave it until the last minute then what should they expect. On alot of occasions CS can do very little to actually help the customer simply offer words of advice. CS mainly deal with complaints which, although may seem urgent to the customer cant be dealt with instantly as they often need to be investigated. GNE website is light years ahead of many customers including other methods. So I am afraid perhaps i am biased but all of the team deserve christmas at home to relax and customers should be grateful for the levels of service provided that are not provided in other parts of Go Ahead's companies especially Wilts & Dorset in Salisbury where no service has been provided from 24th to 27th!!!
Hear, hear!
GNE are light years ahead of many operators throughout the country, for both their operations and indeed their presence on the online platform.
Once they have a real time tracking app similar to Arriva's which is being rolled out at present, I really doubt there's much more they can do to improve other than longer hours (which were actually recently implemented).
When we had really bad snow earlier this year, I think I recall GNE being online until the very last bus of the night...