(15 Aug 2022, 4:33 pm)Malarkey wrote I'm all for having such things as Delay Repay for delayed/cancelled journey's over 30 Minutes like they have on the trains, to be fair with Go North East they reluctantly refund fares to their customers but not without the customer arguing the toss about first though as I've experienced on more than one occasion.
I do personally think that it unfair that despite all these constant changes to services over the past 12 months that it's passengers that pay the penalty through fare increases when services have been significantly reduced, I feel the recent fare increases should be reversed as they are now unjustified and in effect passengers are now paying a premium rate for less than half the service they had a year ago, you wouldn't pay a full months line rental for your Mobile/TV/Broadband if you have a number of service outages in the month, so why should you still a pay for a monthly bus pass for example if you've been impacted by a number of delays/cancellations.
Operators should be fined by the likes of Nexus/Local Councils for non-operation of services if it means improving punctuality of bus services that they operate
and that if there is a history of offences within a short period then the contract should be revoked and retendered for another operator to take over.
Well, that's the whole issue with deregulation, isn't it? It's allowed buses to be run like the Wild West for far too long.
On complaints about regular disruption/cancelled journeys, you can always use the Bus Appeals Body - https://bususers.org/passengers/complain...s-process/. More people should do so really.
Poor operation of contracted services, I agree should result in the removal of contracts and a temporary ban from the bidding process. Not to mention retrieval of the cost to retender the service.
(15 Aug 2022, 5:26 pm)morritt89 wrote I think it's wrong that passengers have to suffer because of a lack of drivers. I am also aware that apart from sub contracting out routes and scaling back timetables to a skeleton or Sunday service that nothing can be done. Surely (you would hope) that there are alarm bells ringing in GNE towers on how to retain current drivers rather than constantly focus on recruitment.
The changes that are being made now, could have (and should have?) been made sooner to help stem the flow of cancelled journeys. Wasn't there a post somewhere on here that said cancellations would be very minimal once the last lot of changes went ahead? I remain skeptical as to whether the situation will improve when the new contracts start.
You'd think there are alarm bells ringing at most operators, but it doesn't seem to be sinking in that they have a real problem in recruitment and retention. Furlough during the pandemic has only accelerated that, with drivers who were furloughed finding that they are better off elsewhere.
I agree, these changes should have been the ones made not even a month ago. It feels like we're in a spiral of continuously firefighting, rather than having a strategy. Though I do wonder how much of this is to divert resource for the contracted stuff... maybe this is #SeptemberReady that the MD keeps mentioning on twitter? Either that, or it's one big coincidence that schools and the Metro Flow closure start around the same.
(15 Aug 2022, 6:58 pm)DeltaMan wrote Yeah, some of those changes definitely aren't "temporary". Are we really going to see GNE restore the 12 back to 3 an hour (heaven forbid 4 an hour) when it's going to cost an extra bus and 2 or 3 drivers a day?
No chance.
With frequency reduced and the inevitable drop in passengers that will bring, the next logical step will be to withdraw it completely with a change to the 49 group of services and customers told to change at Blaydon!
A prime example of how to destroy a bus route.
I tend to agree. I can't see the X20 being re-introduced for example, when they've went to the trouble of extending and splitting the 20 into 20/20A.
The Washington 82 remains the best example I've seen of how to destroy a bus route, followed closely by the old 99.
