(16 Jul 2022, 8:19 pm)Rapidsnap wrote Wonder what people would be thinking that they managed to provide extra buses on the number 1 today (service looked to be running with a few extras thrown in).

However it isn't always a simple case of saying Bob from Percy Main depot going to Chester Le Street to drive a service out of that depot. Bob for example may have no idea where certain routes from a depot go, and before you say put them on the easiest route for example the 21, it turn out that he hasn't been trained on Wright Streetdecks. Then someone else says, give them an Omnidekka, they have them at PM, they know how to drive them. Then you have some frother popping up saying why is there a Scania Omnidekka on the Angel on a Saturday. No matter what they can do they cannot win. Worst case scenario is say Clive from Deptford is sent to Riverside to cover a service, gets allocated a double decker and in a lapse of concentration drives it under a low bridge because he didn't know the route too well resulting bad press, one less bus driver and an expensive repair job.

Hmmm yeah, it's a real puzzler with no possible solution isn't it.
Oh wait, someone from Management (let's call him Martijn from Bensham for now) could have had a bit of foresight what with "short notice cancellations" having been the norm for months now, and Percy Main rarely affected since the service cuts several months ago.  Perhaps they could have taken some initiative and at some point over the last several months route trained the drivers, or type trained on vehicles - though the suggestion that GNE would care less about having the "wrong" vehicle on a service is comical.  6175 seems to have been quite happy on the 21 today, along with 6178 for a while.  I suspect 99% of actual customers would rather an Omnidekka than no bus; though personally I would be deploying any 'spare' resource onto some of the other quoted examples of 4 hour gaps in provision ahead of beefing up the 21 allocation.  Anyone can peddle out excuses and reasons not to try; and of course it is easier not to - after all those customers with no option will continue to use the bus and anyone with the option and a brain cell willl already be in their cars.

As for poor Clive, it sounds to me like he shouldn't be behind the wheel of a bus in the first place if he's that clumsy.