(26 Feb 2023, 10:41 am)Dan wrote The dead mileage at the start/end of the day isn’t really where the biggest cost is, it is in the reliefs.

For the 25 and 28/29 to be based at Washington, driver reliefs are all remote (mainly at Chester-le-Street). This means for every relief, you add c.30 mins of paid time (assuming 15 mins there and 15 mins back) to duties. This also results in extra drivers being required to operate the service. There is also the fuel, maintenance and lease costs associated with vans.

At Riverside, buses pass through Gateshead Interchange, where Go North East has a canteen. This means no vans are required (saving all that cost) and no extra paid time for travelling to a remote relief point.

The 58 for example probably required an extra 5-6 drivers just to run it from Washington (due to remote reliefs at Follingsby) compared to when it operates from Riverside. Assuming each of those drivers are paid £30k a year (plus, for ease, let’s say £10k extra in on-costs for tax/pension contributions etc), that’s a cost of around £200-240k a year, just to run the service from the depot which it doesn’t naturally belong.

The Peterlee local services were recently questioned too, and the same applies by interworking with the X6. Far more efficient which helps keep costs down and, in that instance, keeps cost down to the local authority who fund those services.

Hopefully you can now understand it makes complete sense…


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