(19 Oct 2021, 3:26 pm)Adrian wrote Good to see the 17.39 reinstated, but we'll see what happens with regards to the 18.11. I'm surprised it was ever deemed operationally acceptable (as it was published) to drop the last three trips of the day for a service, without offering up an alternative. 

It's clearly not the same as dropping a trip out of something on a 10-15 minute frequency, so there should always be an alternative offered for last journeys of the day. If they end early enough, as the 50 does, then you could for example advise customers to use the 21/X21 and get the Durham-bound 50 for stops between Waldridge and Chester Moor, or connect on to the later running 50s South Shields-bound at Chester-le-Street. You could also say that for the additional 4 minutes the 50 takes to go via Waldridge, a 21 from Durham could have been diverted, which would have only ate into the 4 minutes it has timetabled between the Lambton Arms and Front Street.

It feels to me that the onus is being placed firmly on the customer to find a solution, with an expectation that they'll have enough knowledge to work it out for themselves. Its pointless them using the journey planners, as they advise you to use cancelled trips.

I'm not sure it was ever deemed operationally acceptable.

It was published, but the cancellations are published at a certain time every day, reviewed again the following morning, and work continues right until the moment the journey is cancelled, to get it covered. Consecutive journeys, and first/last buses, still remain the utmost priority to cover - but the nature of how duties are compiled and allocated, as well as restrictions around driving time and breaks, mean it's really not as easy as taking a driver off one shift and putting them onto another.

There is a huge amount of resource that goes into compiling this list, on a daily basis including weekends - whilst I agree that more could, and should, be done to offer alternatives, I don't think it'd be quite as easy as has been suggested in the past. You run the risk of putting everything else in the business on hold, potentially including the cover of these duties, to produce a list of cancelled journeys and available alternatives for customers.

Obviously diverting services is another beast completely, and comes with its own complications, which is why it's not done very often other than on the X9/X10.