(17 Sep 2022, 8:16 pm)Malarkey wrote Noticed today some of these "Agency Drivers" that GNE have brought in to cover the additional contracts they are operating, most noticeably Metro Replacements 900/X900 are using Drivers from Abellio London as two of the drivers I seen today both were wearing Abellio uniform, must be costing Go North East a significant amount of money for their wages/accommodation for the next 3 months.
Elsewhere the 21/X21 is just an utter joke with the amount of Angel/XLines X21's parked up in Gateshead Interchange at various points of the day due to services being cut short at Gateshead, feel sorry for those who are then left like waiting excessive periods time to end up like a tinned sardine on a bus that is then way beyond capacity, echoing the points of others the timetables across multiple routes are just not fit for purpose as they don't have enough running time and layover periods are tighter than nuns you know what causing service cancellations left, right and centre as the drivers physically can't do anything to keep to time due to elements such as the A1 Works impacting the 21/X21 at Peak Times.
Don't even get me started on Riversides Depot Allocator.
Maybe so, but I'd be very surprised if it wasn't factored into the price they've given Nexus to run the service.
It's a big piece of work. Given operators are struggling getting drivers to cover their normal work, they've clearly had to look further afield to cover this contract. Whilst I'm personally not a fan of using agency workers, I think it's good that GNE have clearly put a well-thought out plan in place to cover this. I was at Heworth for a bit earlier, and it seemed to be running like clockwork; even with the match traffic.