(23 Jan 2022, 10:28 am)Dan wrote The truth of the matter however was that there probably was someone around to ask - as I mentioned in my previous post both Nexus and Go North East had supervisors in the interchange, but they tend to be closer to Greggs in between 'walkarounds'. In my experience there tends to be at least one driver on the 'ABC' side of the interchange waiting to relieve an incoming 60/61/62/X6 (especially as the latter two are on Saturday timetables), who would have also been nearby to ask.

If the posters are still up (there's no reason why they would have been taken down), then in print at each stand there's something that tells customers to use the Sunday timetable, which is of course at every stand on the liner.

The point I'm making is that there are options - for people in Park Lane at least - to gain access to the information. There is room for improvement:

• the digital displays could be updated to show Sunday times on a Saturday - but this is an infrastructure issue outside of the operators' control
  
• Customer Services could be open to take phone calls for those customers who do not feel confident enough to use a digital method (website/app), a print method (the bus stop liner), or to ask someone on-site.
  

As we've discussed on many occasions in the past, it comes down to a cost vs benefit situation. Presumably staffing levels in GNE's customer services team decreased when opening hours reduced at the start of the pandemic, making it more difficult to cover weekends without reliance on overtime. Presumably digital displays could be updated, but it would cost a lot of time for local authorities, when, as we know, the situation is changing very regularly for all three operators, with dates often not aligned to each other.

With regards to the negative chitter-chatter - it's commendable you helped those customers - but you'll never completely get away from this. Last weekend I went to Toby Carvery at Barnes Park for breakfast. On arrival, I discovered that they were closed due to staff shortages. There had been posts the previous weekend on social media to advise customers, and there have been posts since. For me, there was no forewarning, and no explanation. I'm not oblivious to the staff shortages being faced in all sectors currently, but I was quite annoyed because it was time and money wasted. I even told a few friends about it (negative chitter-chatter!) I think I have said it previously but the bus industry seems to be facing more criticsm than other sectors who are going through the exact same thing, although this is probably down to there being a reliance on the bus as a public service.

I suspect that those pensioners I wrote about probably were avoided by anyone over that side of the Interchange, mind they do tend to bark on to each other but then when I intervened and told them why, including reprimanding them for wearing masks over their mouths alone, which does not help the spread or covid, they soon quietened and accepted that the situation was out of the operator's control. 
I too acknowledge your point about the Toby carvery, my next door neighbour was manager there before moving to the Duke of Wellington had major problems staffing the Durham Road branch and had to close several times.
The ignorance over Covid implications is everywhere, and will now run riot after this fascist regime has abandoned all regulations just to keep the bastard Johnson in power. I fear what absenteeism we see now will just get worse as the largely arrogant and ignorant public think it's 'freedom for all'..
The year is just going to get worse...