Drivers at Arriva's Jesmond depot voted for indefinite strike action from 21st October, in opposition of the company's plans to close the depot. The strike action has since been called off, after a revised pay deal was offered.
https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-event...ond-depot/

According to the Newcastle Chronicle, Unite said that the bus company put forward a "substantially improved offer" after extensive negotiations. Drivers voted to accept the offer which included daily relocation payments and one-off payments in months following the depot's closure. Unite regional officer, Dave Telford, said: "After extensive negotiations, Arriva offered the employees affected a substantially improved offer which consisted of daily relocation payments and a series of one-off payments over the coming months. Following a ballot, this offer was accepted and the dispute has concluded."

The services from Jesmond depot that were planned to be disrupted were:

• X30 (16:33) Newcastle to Bebside not known if this journey will operate
  
• 43 Morpeth/Cramlington to Newcastle will be suspended
  
• 44/45 Dinnington to Newcastle will be suspended
  
• 46/46A Featherstone Grove to Newcastle will be suspended
  
• 47 General Hospital to Newcastle will be suspended
  
• 51 Whitley Bay to Newcastle will be suspended
  
• 51A Holystone Park to Newcastle will be suspended
  
• 52 Ashington/Cramlington to Newcastle will be suspended
  
• 53 North Shields to Cramlington will be suspended
  
• 54 Whitley Bay to Newcastle will be suspended
  
• 55 Forest Hall to Newcastle will be suspended
  
• S105 Brunton Lane to St Cuthberts RC Lower School will be suspended
  
• 306 Whitley Bay/Tynemouth to Newcastle will operate with disruption
  
• 308 (Sun/Bank Hol) Blyth to Newcastle will operate with disruption
  
• 553 Battle Hill to Freeman Hospital/Regent Centre will be suspended
  
• 555 Quorum Park to Four Lane Ends will be suspended
  
• S652 (pm) Killingworth East Bailey to Northumberland Park West Allotment will be suspended
  
• S654 Northumberland Park West Allotment to Killingworth East Bailey will be suspended
  
• S656 Killingworth East Bailey to Northumberland Park West Allotment will be suspended
  
• 685 Carlisle/Hexham to Newcastle Arriva journeys will operate with disruption
  
• S693 Wideopen to Seaton Burn North Gosforth Academy will be suspended
  
• S699 Seaton Burn North Gosforth Academy to Wideopen will be suspended
  

Updated on 21st October 2022

I'm not sure passengers will notice there's a strike on, there's been so many cancellations recently.

(08 Oct 2022, 3:47 pm)omnicity4659 wrote https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-event...ond-depot/

Drivers have voted for indefinite strike action from 21st October. Not clear if it's just Jesmond depot striking or if Ashington and Blyth are joining it too.

What routes are operated by Jesmond?

(08 Oct 2022, 6:20 pm)Unber43 wrote What routes are operated by Jesmond?

• X30 (16:33) Newcastle to Bebside
  
• 43 Morpeth/Cramlington to Newcastle
  
• 44/45 Dinnington to Newcastle
  
• 46/46A Featherstone Grove to Newcastle
  
• 47 General Hospital to Newcastle
  
• 51 Whitley Bay to Newcastle
  
• 51A Holystone Park to Newcastle
  
• 52 Ashington/Cramlington to Newcastle
  
• 53 North Shields to Cramlington
  
• 54 Whitley Bay to Newcastle
  
• 55 Forest Hall to Newcastle
  
• S105 Brunton Lane to St Cuthberts RC Lower School
  
• 306 Whitley Bay/Tynemouth to Newcastle
  
• 308 (Sun/Bank Hol) Blyth to Newcastle
  
• 553 Battle Hill to Freeman Hospital/Regent Centre
  
• 555 Quorum Park to Four Lane Ends
  
• S652 (pm) Killingworth East Bailey to Northumberland Park West Allotment
  
• S654 Northumberland Park West Allotment to Killingworth East Bailey
  
• S656 Killingworth East Bailey to Northumberland Park West Allotment
  
• 685 Carlisle/Hexham to Newcastle
  
• S693 Wideopen to Seaton Burn North Gosforth Academy
  
• S699 Seaton Burn North Gosforth Academy to Wideopen
  
• Arriva Road Transport Services rail replacement services, when awarded
  

So how mamy Jesmond drivers have left Arriva to join SCNE & GoNE?

But on a serious note, given depot rationalisation with both GNE & Arriva, would they not have been better off agreeing this with TUPE nailed down?

GNE > Arriva:
- Percy Main depot
- Percy Main's staff
- Routes 19/41/41A

Arriva > GNE:
- Jesmond's staff* (moved to Riverside)
* Note some could get option to stay with Arriva and move to PM
- Route 685 (ran out of Hexham)

Effectively excluding any small route deals as above, Arriva would move their Jesmond routes to Percy Main and GNE would their Percy Main routes to Riverside. Would be a win win as Arriva would've still been able to sustain a feasible operation in North Tyneside without the pitfalls of Blyth / Ashington, and GNE would be able to rationalise their depot estates.

Plus Arriva eventually no doubt would've been able to draw up a deal with the developers building houses around Norham Road meaning potentially a replacement depot down the line.

(09 Oct 2022, 9:48 am)L469 YVK wrote But on a serious note, given depot rationalisation with both GNE & Arriva, would they not have been better off agreeing this with TUPE nailed down?

Effectively excluding any small route deals as above, Arriva would move their Jesmond routes to Percy Main and GNE would their Percy Main routes to Riverside. Would be a win win as Arriva would've still been able to sustain a feasible operation in North Tyneside without the pitfalls of Blyth / Ashington, and GNE would be able to rationalise their depot estates.

Plus Arriva eventually no doubt would've been able to draw up a deal with the developers building houses around Norham Road meaning potentially a replacement depot down the line.

Think the entire point of closing Jesmond without direct replacement is to cut overheads, taking on Percy Main would completely defeat the point of that. Obviously there were initial plans to move to a new site, you assume massively rising costs (building work, fuel, wages, parts, etc.) are at least part of the reason why this is no longer going ahead. 

Remains to be seen what will happen to the 685, but realistically most other conventional Jesmond routes can be operated by Ashington/Blyth without massive increases to dead mileage. For the 43 and 52 for example, there will be significant reductions in dead mileage for the boards starting/finishing at Ashington & Morpeth - and no real change on the Cramlington ones. It'll really only be the minibus routes which see significant increases in dead mileage. 

I don't imagine GNE would be keen on smacking even more work into Riverside immediately after having to take on the CLS routes either.

(09 Oct 2022, 9:48 am)L469 YVK wrote But on a serious note, given depot rationalisation with both GNE & Arriva, would they not have been better off agreeing this with TUPE nailed down?

GNE > Arriva:
- Percy Main depot
- Percy Main's staff
- Routes 19/41/41A

Arriva > GNE:
- Jesmond's staff* (moved to Riverside)
* Note some could get option to stay with Arriva and move to PM
- Route 685 (ran out of Hexham)

Effectively excluding any small route deals as above, Arriva would move their Jesmond routes to Percy Main and GNE would their Percy Main routes to Riverside. Would be a win win as Arriva would've still been able to sustain a feasible operation in North Tyneside without the pitfalls of Blyth / Ashington, and GNE would be able to rationalise their depot estates.

Plus Arriva eventually no doubt would've been able to draw up a deal with the developers building houses around Norham Road meaning potentially a replacement depot down the line.

In fairness the better idea would've been to build the super depot which was always planned and rumoured to be at the North of Cramlington and merge Blyth and Jesmond depots together.

Blyth is an old depot in a space which at some point there's plans for redevelopment and Jesmond has been sold.

Arguably Cramlington would be a better place for most anyway the

43 (interworks with 44/45), 52/53 (interworks with 54), 57 (possibly interwork with 51), X8/X9 (interworks with the X7), X10, X11 are all from Cramlington

Other than the 306/308, 46/46A, 685 and 55 you've pretty much got everything sorted and it's not a million miles away to South Beach, 5 minute drive for the 306/308.

A brand new depot would have a design life of 50+ years. Materials costing more simply doesn't cut it as a believable reason why they have chosen not to replace like for like. A far more plausible reason is that they genuinely don't foresee a return to pre-Covid revenues, and they have also looked at the politics of this country and the geopolitics of electric vehicle production, and concluded that, for the next few years at least, only a lunatic would make an investment of this type.

(09 Oct 2022, 2:40 pm)Storx wrote In fairness the better idea would've been to build the super depot which was always planned and rumoured to be at the North of Cramlington and merge Blyth and Jesmond depots together.

Blyth is an old depot in a space which at some point there's plans for redevelopment and Jesmond has been sold.

Arguably Cramlington would be a better place for most anyway the

43 (interworks with 44/45), 52/53 (interworks with 54), 57 (possibly interwork with 51), X8/X9 (interworks with the X7), X10, X11 are all from Cramlington

Other than the 306/308, 46/46A, 685 and 55 you've pretty much got everything sorted and it's not a million miles away to South Beach, 5 minute drive for the 306/308.

In hindsight though going back nearly 10 years and with an Alnwick outstation, would a merger between Blyth and Ashington with a depot around Bedlington or Cambois not have been a good option?

---

Arriva do have a fairly strong local network in North Tyneside. If the shoe was on GNE's foot right now wanting to close Percy Main and move PM's operations to Riverside, they'd have good reason to with only the 19/41/41A left.

But it doesn't make sense Arriva shutting shop in Newcastle & North Tyneside.

(09 Oct 2022, 10:30 pm)Starscream wrote A brand new depot would have a design life of 50+ years. Materials costing more simply doesn't cut it as a believable reason why they have chosen not to replace like for like. A far more plausible reason is that they genuinely don't foresee a return to pre-Covid revenues, and they have also looked at the politics of this country and the geopolitics of electric vehicle production, and concluded that, for the next few years at least, only a lunatic would make an investment of this type.

The thing is they're having to rebuild Blyth and extend Ashington to fit all the buses in as both depots as they are aren't big enough so the money wasted doing that would be a long way to building the new depot anyway. Not to mention the sale of Jesmond which has just 'vanished' and Blyth being prime land for sale aswell in a spot lined for redevelopment so they may have to move anyway. It seems an awful waste of money spending anything on it.

Speaking of that does anywhere know where this 'tempory' site is as there's no way both Blyth and Ashington can take everything they are as far as I'm aware as they are.

(09 Oct 2022, 10:52 pm)L469 YVK wrote In hindsight though going back nearly 10 years and with an Alnwick outstation, would a merger between Blyth and Ashington with a depot around Bedlington or Cambois not have been a good option?

---

Arriva do have a fairly strong local network in North Tyneside. If the shoe was on GNE's foot right now wanting to close Percy Main and move PM's operations to Riverside, they'd have good reason to with only the 19/41/41A left.

But it doesn't make sense Arriva shutting shop in Newcastle & North Tyneside.

Nah don't think Percy Main would be that good. There's nothing really around it only the 54, 306/308 only going anywhere near it. Cramlington imo would be better suited imo, same as Belington having the same problems. Ashington is in a good spot imo ideal for both the Morpeth and Ashington expresses.

(08 Oct 2022, 3:47 pm)omnicity4659 wrote https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-event...ond-depot/

Drivers have voted for indefinite strike action from 21st October. Not clear if it's just Jesmond depot striking or if Ashington and Blyth are joining it too.

It's just Jesmond drivers bud.

(10 Oct 2022, 7:12 am)Storx wrote The thing is they're having to rebuild Blyth and extend Ashington to fit all the buses in as both depots as they are aren't big enough so the money wasted doing that would be a long way to building the new depot anyway. Not to mention the sale of Jesmond which has just 'vanished' and Blyth being prime land for sale aswell in a spot lined for redevelopment so they may have to move anyway. It seems an awful waste of money spending anything on it.

Expanding Ashington and Blyth will be significantly cheaper than buying land in Newcastle, building a new depot, and operating it. 

Blyth won't need to relocate, the redevelopment of the depot is part of the regeneration project of Blyth town centre as far as I'm aware.

(10 Oct 2022, 10:21 am)mb134 wrote Expanding Ashington and Blyth will be significantly cheaper than buying land in Newcastle, building a new depot, and operating it. 

Blyth won't need to relocate, the redevelopment of the depot is part of the regeneration project of Blyth town centre as far as I'm aware.

It's 100% in the way Arriva Blyth depot for the regeneration plans


https://www.northumberland.gov.uk/Econom...Blyth.aspx

That's the most recent plans and 48 and 11 are both on the bus depot site. So unless the plans get scrapped, considering 48 is one of the best plans out of the lot (Education based) then the depot will have to move. The plans there are all before 2030.

The current plans for the Blyth depot (taking the roof off the garage etc) could be considered as part of the demolition for the wider proposals.

There are two certainties whenever Arriva close a bus depot. One is that they will reassure passengers that there will be no reduction in services, and the other is that there will very shortly afterwards be a reduction in services.

(11 Oct 2022, 8:20 am)tvd wrote There are two certainties whenever Arriva close a bus depot.  One is that they will reassure passengers that there will be no reduction in services, and the other is that there will very shortly afterwards be a reduction in services.

In fairness the 46, 46A, 51A are all getting scrapped on the same day and the 54 is on a permanent reduced timetable so they'll have a good job blagging their not reducing services.

I love how Unite have left this until ten days before the depot is due to close. I'm guessing the drivers have been told they're going to have to transfer to either Blyth or Ashington or p*** off. How on earth are Arriva supposed to come up with an alternative in that length of time?

(12 Oct 2022, 10:00 am)Driver9*** wrote I love how Unite have left this until ten days before the depot is due to close. I'm guessing the drivers have been told they're going to have to transfer to either Blyth or Ashington or p*** off. How on earth are Arriva supposed to come up with an alternative in that length of time?

I imagine that negotiations, balloting stage, the counts, then the announcement and the 2 weeks notice needed by law has taken up a lot of precious time.

Arriva won't be the only company they're dealing with at the moment. With the government throwing loads of shit in the direction of worker's rights I'd expect that all unions will be making very sure that everything is all good and legal.

Updated original post with disruption info.

(12 Oct 2022, 11:13 am)omnicity4659 wrote Updated original post with disruption info.

Depending on when the strike action ends, the 308 could be affected all day if it runs beyond the 30th October. Just saying.

From their news article:
"Our plan is to continue operating the services operated from Jesmond, from alternate locations. Whilst unfortunately this has placed a small number of colleagues at risk of redundancy, drivers and engineers at Jesmond depot are being offered alternative employment and we have consulted with the team offering a generous compensation package to mitigate the impact of the location changes."

Does anyone know what's been offered or how it compares to the Chester-le-Street compensation package?

(12 Oct 2022, 2:36 pm)Adrian wrote From their news article:
"Our plan is to continue operating the services operated from Jesmond, from alternate locations. Whilst unfortunately this has placed a small number of colleagues at risk of redundancy, drivers and engineers at Jesmond depot are being offered alternative employment and we have consulted with the team offering a generous compensation package to mitigate the impact of the location changes."

Does anyone know what's been offered or how it compares to the Chester-le-Street compensation package?

I'd love to know that myself. I doubt it'll be more than £1000.

Interesting conversation with one driver tonight who said if they promise to bury the Streetlites under Jesmond depot then strike action could be averted

Jesmond Strike is averted.

(19 Oct 2022, 5:15 pm)Unber43 wrote Jesmond Strike is averted.

Well that's unfortunate, I was looking forward to some more political comments!

(19 Oct 2022, 5:15 pm)Unber43 wrote Jesmond Strike is averted.

Unsurprisingly, all it took to get the union to change their stance that the depot closure would lead to a poorer service for passengers, was more money for the drivers.

The depot is still closing, and Arriva NE are presumably now even more likely to have to make some drivers redundant and make small service cuts than they were before, to recoup the cost of this deal.