(01 Oct 2014, 10:09 pm)Jimmi wrote Seem as there has been alot of talk of services with overcrowding and poor reliability I feel I have to mention that Durham service 64 is suffering from these problems:
Whilst I was stood in Durham around lunchtime today I saw a Dart heading towards the Arnison Centre and all seats were filled and there was no room to stand, so it was completely full and this isn't something rare to see especially during term time, even during the school holidays once I had to stand from Fram to Durham.
The reliability is terrible, often I used be stood waiting at Framwellgate Moor watching Go North East's buses fly past on-time whilst you have been stood there for so long you have completely lost your sanity. Whilst stood in Durham this afternoon I may not have been totally paying attention but I think there wasn't a 64 heading towards Musgrave Gardens or Sherburn for over half an hour then I saw two or three 64s heading to the Arnison Centre all on North Road at once. The Darts that are allocated to this service are awful, going up some of the hills in Newton Hall you have fears that the bus is going to roll back down the hill and they sound awful and the leg room between the seats is non existent.
Something needs to be done about this service as it is a terrible service, the loads between Durham and Framwellgate Moor do cause problems especially if you are stood at the University Hospital or County Hall and it drives straight past you full you will lose custom to the competition. To help with this problem I think service 7 should be extended to Framwellgate Moor so it could pick up New College students which would reduce the pressure on the 64 as when the 7/7A previously ran up to Framwellgate Moor every 15 minutes during the daytime there didn't seem to be as many problems with capacity on the 64 as the New College students had more buses between Fram and Durham.
The 64s seem to suffer as they hit the worst places to try and pull out. Heading towards the Arnison Centre, trying to pull out at the bottom of Claypath can take forever since the flow of traffic is never ending - the same applies at Gilesgate roundabout heading towards Musgrave, meaning you're late heading in both directions. The sheer amount of traffic up Gilesgate over the past few weeks is causing severe problems for the 64, with it taking me 18 minutes to get from Sherburn Road End to Claypath, unlike the timetabled 7/8.
As for better buses, we have been told that there are new/newer buses coming from another Arriva division in the near future destined for the town service.