(10 Jun 2023, 9:04 pm)Storx wrote Football should be no-where near a gig and having stuff like the Champions League song as you're walk on is just too far.



They'll all be crying, they're already trying to argue that St James is a better place for gigs but it's not. All the big bands / gigs go to Sunderland as St James has all sorts of problems hence the stage being in the corner.

Mental football rivarly up here and taking it beyond football.

I went to see Kip Moore at the Sage a few weeks ago, he's American but he played the Champions League music before he came out. Most bands I've been to see will do something local to get the crowd going. 

As for which stadium is better for gigs, Newcastle were never interested in them during the Ashley era. Going forward it's likely you'll see a lot more there, not just Sam Fender.

On Nexus, I do think they could have planned this better, but it's an incredibly difficult process with so many people needing to use the network and the limited staff and resources available. They need to learn from this, but from what I've heard from people who were at the gigs at Sunderland and Newcastle last night, it was no worse than normal to get home.

(11 Jun 2023, 9:44 am)Shrek wrote I went to see Kip Moore at the Sage a few weeks ago, he's American but he played the Champions League music before he came out. Most bands I've been to see will do something local to get the crowd going. 

As for which stadium is better for gigs, Newcastle were never interested in them during the Ashley era. Going forward it's likely you'll see a lot more there, not just Sam Fender.

On Nexus, I do think they could have planned this better, but it's an incredibly difficult process with so many people needing to use the network and the limited staff and resources available. They need to learn from this, but from what I've heard from people who were at the gigs at Sunderland and Newcastle last night, it was no worse than normal to get home.

I was on the ground in Newcastle last night and there was more than enough resource to get people home from the Newcastle end (if anything, too much resource). Whether the planned disruption caused a significant amount of customers to make alternative arrangements (lifts, Uber, etc) or not remains unclear.

Journey times of course were slightly longer and inconvenient to need to change at Gateshead, but overall I think most customers that used the Sam Fender shuttle buses were happy.


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(10 Jun 2023, 10:32 pm)Storx wrote Surely they'll just be waiting to get a reasonable load before taking off, it's all drop off only so no point running the service if there's no-one on.

Are they able to do that with a timetabled service? Remember, the Metro was off for everyone, not just those going to the Sam Fender concert. 

(11 Jun 2023, 9:44 am)Shrek wrote I went to see Kip Moore at the Sage a few weeks ago, he's American but he played the Champions League music before he came out. Most bands I've been to see will do something local to get the crowd going. 

As for which stadium is better for gigs, Newcastle were never interested in them during the Ashley era. Going forward it's likely you'll see a lot more there, not just Sam Fender.

On Nexus, I do think they could have planned this better, but it's an incredibly difficult process with so many people needing to use the network and the limited staff and resources available. They need to learn from this, but from what I've heard from people who were at the gigs at Sunderland and Newcastle last night, it was no worse than normal to get home.

That probably makes the decision to suspend the Metro even more bizarre; and that's before you think what it'll have cost Nexus to do so. As Dan says above though, difficult to quantify how many have went for other options, e.g. Uber/Taxi, private car, etc. Nexus were actually promoting parking in town on the concerts page.

(11 Jun 2023, 9:44 am)Shrek wrote I went to see Kip Moore at the Sage a few weeks ago, he's American but he played the Champions League music before he came out. Most bands I've been to see will do something local to get the crowd going. 

As for which stadium is better for gigs, Newcastle were never interested in them during the Ashley era. Going forward it's likely you'll see a lot more there, not just Sam Fender.

On Nexus, I do think they could have planned this better, but it's an incredibly difficult process with so many people needing to use the network and the limited staff and resources available. They need to learn from this, but from what I've heard from people who were at the gigs at Sunderland and Newcastle last night, it was no worse than normal to get home.

I can't see Newcastle having many decent gigs, there's serious logisitical issues in terms of the access tunnels aren't big enough to get the stage stuff in and no-where for the trucks to park. Ashley was the one who wanted the gigs, just no-one was interested. The Stadium of Light is bigger aswell because of Newcastle's lobsided stands and has a much bigger pitch space.

I believe there's strong noise restrictions aswell.

(11 Jun 2023, 10:29 am)Adrian wrote Are they able to do that with a timetabled service? Remember, the Metro was off for everyone, not just those going to the Sam Fender concert. 

Not too sure legally but who's going to complain. If there's no-one getting on at the first stop then there's very little point of it running beyond that as those people will just use the Metro as it was running just not stopping in Newcastle.

I wouldn't be surprised if locals just used the local buses instead which dropped them closer to their homes, it's no different to a Metro replacement really when the buses are never really busy. I know I would've, and it's cheaper than the Metro aswell.

It's the same with the SF3, don't really see the point of it running non-stop to CLS, imo. it would've been better to just run the 21 every 5/10 minutes instead, it basically duplicated it anyway and there's very few houses in the centre of CLS and no-one is going to get that then walk 20 minutes when they could just use the bus to their door.

I was on the ground in Newcastle too, I think an extension to local services would have been a better use of resource than dedicated services.

Our last buses to Wallsend cross over the city at around 2300 and 2320, and there were reports of Byker terminating services being inundated with requests to go to Wallsend etc.

Our SF1 drivers, drafted in from numerous depots, would have been better utilised covering and strengthening the likes of the 39/40.

I think local services should have run an extra two hours later, when any concert or big event is on, especially how bare boned Sunday evening services can be

(12 Jun 2023, 9:17 pm)Unber43 wrote I think local services should have run an extra two hours later, when any concert or big event is on, especially how bare boned Sunday evening services can be

The Coast Road services are bad especially for mid-week NUFC kick offs.

Before covid, it was:
- 306/308 - 4x PH Newcastle - Billy Mill
- 309/310/311 - 3x PH Newcastle - Cobalt South

Now only 4x buses per hour and the last 309 of the evening after the Leicester match left St Mary's Place full. Now after 11pm, a 75-80% load would be acceptable but services leaving full and risking leaving passengers out of pocket with a taxi fare if unable to get on is unacceptable.

Should be at least a 10 minute frequency (or 6x buses per hour) between Newcastle and Station Road on match nights after full time

(15 Jun 2023, 6:03 pm)L469 YVK wrote The Coast Road services are bad especially for mid-week NUFC kick offs.

Before covid, it was:
- 306/308 - 4x PH Newcastle - Billy Mill
- 309/310/311 - 3x PH Newcastle - Cobalt South

Now only 4x buses per hour and the last 309 of the evening after the Leicester match left St Mary's Place full. Now after 11pm, a 75-80% load would be acceptable but services leaving full and risking leaving passengers out of pocket with a taxi fare if unable to get on is unacceptable.

Should be at least a 10 minute frequency (or 6x buses per hour) between Newcastle and Station Road on match nights after full time

The last couple of times when there has been a midweek evening match Arriva operated a couple of duplicates on the 306.

(15 Jun 2023, 6:03 pm)L469 YVK wrote The Coast Road services are bad especially for mid-week NUFC kick offs.

Before covid, it was:
- 306/308 - 4x PH Newcastle - Billy Mill
- 309/310/311 - 3x PH Newcastle - Cobalt South

Now only 4x buses per hour and the last 309 of the evening after the Leicester match left St Mary's Place full. Now after 11pm, a 75-80% load would be acceptable but services leaving full and risking leaving passengers out of pocket with a taxi fare if unable to get on is unacceptable. 

Should be at least a 10 minute frequency (or 6x buses per hour) between Newcastle and Station Road on match nights after full time

That's the risk a number of ops are taking.
The view that greater revenue vs lower costs is worth taking, is clearly an attractive comparison. 

It may pay off. It may put punters off. 

GNE have done it with the X1, 56 and X10. 

It may pay off short term and stablise the books somewhat. I don't think it will pay off longterm when it comes to growing passenger numbers.

Surely a better solution would be to route train one or two drivers at Riverside to do the 10, 21, 56, X1, X10 and 309 and have them on standby in Newcastle in case a bus gets full and drop in if needed. If not then just head back to the depot. Seems more sense than running numerous duplicates which likely won't be needed.

Similar Arriva Blyth could do the same for the 43, 306, 308, X10 and possibly X15/X21 aswell.

(15 Jun 2023, 6:34 pm)Storx wrote Surely a better solution would be to route train one or two drivers at Riverside to do the 10, 21, 56, X1, X10 and 309 and have them on standby in Newcastle in case a bus gets full and drop in if needed. If not then just head back to the depot. Seems more sense than running numerous duplicates which likely won't be needed.

Similar Arriva Blyth could do the same for the 43, 306, 308, X10 and possibly X15/X21 aswell.

Don't see how that's a better solution at all, if you're paying them to drive into Newcastle and wait around, you may as well get them to drive something back in service.

I've not paid much attention to what GNE do with duplicates as it doesn't concern me in getting home from a match, but Arriva tend to know pretty well what's going to need an additional bus. They throw quite a lot of resource at it, and seeing the passenger loadings on them it seems to pay off.

(15 Jun 2023, 7:57 pm)mb134 wrote Don't see how that's a better solution at all, if you're paying them to drive into Newcastle and wait around, you may as well get them to drive something back in service.

I've not paid much attention to what GNE do with duplicates as it doesn't concern me in getting home from a match, but Arriva tend to know pretty well what's going to need an additional bus. They throw quite a lot of resource at it, and seeing the passenger loadings on them it seems to pay off.

Yeah agreed with Blyth to be fair, that was more aimed at Riverside. Probably not wise to run one in service on the X10 (GNE), if it's not needed for example, as it's miles out the way. Don't believe they do anything recently though unless it's changed.

Would work at Deptford aswell for similar reasons, better than sending a 20 to Durham when it's got no-one on for example.

(15 Jun 2023, 6:34 pm)Storx wrote Surely a better solution would be to route train one or two drivers at Riverside to do the 10, 21, 56, X1, X10 and 309 and have them on standby in Newcastle in case a bus gets full and drop in if needed. If not then just head back to the depot. Seems more sense than running numerous duplicates which likely won't be needed.

Similar Arriva Blyth could do the same for the 43, 306, 308, X10 and possibly X15/X21 aswell.

There is an early morning 56 journey ran by Riverside, but im not sure whether that is a route being once a day where only a select few drivers learn, or all of them on the 27 Rota.