Is anyone doing this anymore? I luckily don't need to use buses today but it seems there's some thick job doing it today.

X7 Newcastle Departures: 17:15
X8 Newcastle Departures: 17:30, 18:05 (+20), 18:45
X9 Newcastle Departures: 17:53

I'm not an expert at this stuff but it's not rocket science to divert the 18:05 X8 onto the X7 and there's absolute no excuse using driving hours etc.

Absolute appalling service again. Unless things improve fast the X7/X8/X9 are doomed when the new railway comes along as they're unusable.

Least we have Gateshead Central Taxis who can actually run a reliable bus service with modern buses which is about as ironic as it can get I'm saying that.

(14 Sep 2023, 6:09 pm)Storx wrote I'm not an expert at this stuff but it's not rocket science to divert the 18:05 X8 onto the X7 and there's absolute no excuse using driving hours etc.

Are there not driver changeovers at Cramlington, which wouldn't be achievable on an X7?

(14 Sep 2023, 6:26 pm)mb134 wrote Are there not driver changeovers at Cramlington, which wouldn't be achievable on an X7?

Don't believe so on that board, believe it's an end of day shift and goes off when it gets to Blyth. For example yesterday - https://bustimes.org/vehicles/anum-ane-1...2023-09-14

(14 Sep 2023, 6:30 pm)Storx wrote Don't believe so on that board, believe it's an end of day shift and goes off when it gets to Blyth. For example yesterday - https://bustimes.org/vehicles/anum-ane-1...2023-09-14

Is it not possible one of the evening 43 duties starts by doing that to town and back to Cramlington, and another Cramlington shift takes the X8 back to Blyth? 

Obviously it could just be them not shifting the X8 onto the X7, but there could be an actual reason for it. I've noticed a few times during the day X9/10/11s have started tracking from Cramlington using a bus that had been on the 43/44/45.

(14 Sep 2023, 6:34 pm)mb134 wrote Is it not possible one of the evening 43 duties starts by doing that to town and back to Cramlington, and another Cramlington shift takes the X8 back to Blyth? 

Obviously it could just be them not shifting the X8 onto the X7, but there could be an actual reason for it. I've noticed a few times during the day X9/10/11s have started tracking from Cramlington using a bus that had been on the 43/44/45.

Ah I'm not sure if I had to be 100% honest, I could be wrong though. The X7/X8/X9 swaps are all over the place in an evening though, weirdly the X9 which goes onto the X7 actually ran into Newcastle but then just disappeared so not sure what happened there.

Doesn't seem like it though as it was cancelled last Friday. Must say I feel sorry for whoever is running 7635 right now as I'd imagine he's just gone through a whole load of abuse.

They need to sort it out, note the 45 hasn't had a bus into Newcastle for 3 hours tonight either.

According to the Wideopen and Seaton Burn Facebook page the Weetslade councillors are in discussions with Nexus about the poor service. Sadly I don't think that's going to help them.

Out of interest, does anyone know why 7546 spent the day on the 44/45/47 yesterday? It was back in Ashington today.

(14 Sep 2023, 8:54 pm)Shrek wrote According to the Wideopen and Seaton Burn Facebook page the Weetslade councillors are in discussions with Nexus about the poor service. Sadly I don't think that's going to help them.

Out of interest, does anyone know why 7546 spent the day on the 44/45/47 yesterday? It was back in Ashington today.

I don't even think the 43/44/45 have been that bad recently have they?

There's a few 43/44/45/47 boards at Ashington btw. 7557/7558/7560/7562 are meant to be on it.

(14 Sep 2023, 9:15 pm)Storx wrote I don't even think the 43/44/45 have been that bad recently have they?

There's a few 43/44/45/47 boards at Ashington btw. 7557/7558/7560/7562 are meant to be on it.

For the most part, no. I live on the route and every time I've gone to catch one recently, it's turned up pretty much on time. Looking at Bustimes there seems to have been at most 2 shifts missing this week per day on the 43/44/45 but, since they all interwork now, it's not hitting any route particularly hard.

They were given 6 buses  (7553/4/7/8/60/2) for 4 boards, but realistically they'll just be allocated any E400.

(14 Sep 2023, 9:21 pm)mb134 wrote For the most part, no. I live on the route and every time I've gone to catch one recently, it's turned up pretty much on time. 

They were given 6 buses  (7553/4/7/8/60/2) for 4 boards, but realistically they'll just be allocated any E400.

That's what I thought, it seems to be the expresses which are getting it lately. Been a few X10/X11 cancellations creeping in aswell which really need the 4 BPH.

Didn't realise 7553/7554 went back, assuming these will be moving to Blyth at some point aswell since they need all the electrics together for obvious reasons.

(14 Sep 2023, 9:23 pm)Storx wrote That's what I thought, it seems to be the expresses which are getting it lately. Been a few X10/X11 cancellations creeping in aswell which really need the 4 BPH.

Didn't realise 7553/7554 went back, assuming these will be moving to Blyth at some point aswell since they need all the electrics together for obvious reasons.

Slightly off subject, but do we know anything about the electrics (vehicle type) and when they are due?

(14 Sep 2023, 9:15 pm)Storx wrote I don't even think the 43/44/45 have been that bad recently have they?

There's a few 43/44/45/47 boards at Ashington btw. 7557/7558/7560/7562 are meant to be on it.

They haven't been too bad recently, a few cancellations since they all moved from Walkergate, but people like to complain and I think the people in those areas think it's only the 43/44/45 which are seeing cancellations which clearly isn't the case.

I hadn't realised that Ashington were doing some boards, that makes sense now.

If the rumours are true and Walkergate staff are leaving as soon as their resettlement pay has came through Arriva cancellations are about to get a whole lot worse

(14 Sep 2023, 9:23 pm)Storx wrote That's what I thought, it seems to be the X7/X8/X9 and 306 which are really getting hit hard lately and are borderline unusable. Not been much mention of the 306 but there's a lot of peak time journeys being cancelled and good luck going the other way.

I have a feeling some of the Blyth issues are vehicle related as well as driver. If you take 7632 today, the 1720 306 does not run onto the 18:48 45 usually, and looking at previous days the 44/45 stint evidently comes from depot so I'm assuming there was no vehicle available for the driver on the 18:48 45?Similarly, this morning, 7606 appeared to fail on the 09:10 306 to Whitley Bay with nothing sent to replace it. It then made it about 1 stop on the 10:29 X9 before being replaced by 7629, then itself replaced 7506 on the X10/11.  

Shift wise, from the looks of it, journeys don't seem to get dropped until around the 9-10am mark, and I haven't seen any late evening journeys missing. It looks like they are prioritising covering journeys that most people rely on to get to work in the morning, and the last buses of the day, and then trying to spread resource as best as possible surrounding that.

(14 Sep 2023, 9:37 pm)Shrek wrote They haven't been too bad recently, a few cancellations since they all moved from Walkergate, but people like to complain and I think the people in those areas think it's only the 43/44/45 which are seeing cancellations which clearly isn't the case.

I hadn't realised that Ashington were doing some boards, that makes sense now.

Yeah that's what I thought if I had to be honest.

(14 Sep 2023, 9:47 pm)mb134 wrote I have a feeling some of the Blyth issues are vehicle related as well as driver. If you take 7632 today, the 1720 306 does not run onto the 18:48 45 usually, and looking at previous days the 44/45 stint evidently comes from depot so I'm assuming there was no vehicle available for the driver on the 18:48 45?Similarly, this morning, 7606 appeared to fail on the 09:10 306 to Whitley Bay with nothing sent to replace it. It then made it about 1 stop on the 10:29 X9 before being replaced by 7629, then itself replaced 7506 on the X10/11.  

Shift wise, from the looks of it, journeys don't seem to get dropped until around the 9-10am mark, and I haven't seen any late evening journeys missing. It looks like they are prioritising covering journeys that most people rely on to get to work in the morning, and the last buses of the day, and then trying to spread resource as best as possible surrounding that.

Not going to lie, I do have a feeling there might be vehicle issues involved aswell. I know when I was looking the other day, everything seemed to be on the road which could be on the road.

The school boards at Blyth really aren't helping things either which I have a feeling might be the main reason for evening peaks going to pot as it's taking buses out which then are pretty much hopeless as they're miles away.

Mind there has to be serious questions on why the X30 is running when the core routes are being messed up completely. I've just noticed that the 17:45 X30 ran which was the exact same time one of the X7's was cancelled tonight. Poor allocating that imo and it's the exact same timing give or take.

(14 Sep 2023, 10:06 pm)Storx wrote Not going to lie, I do have a feeling there might be vehicle issues involved aswell. I know when I was looking the other day, everything seemed to be on the road which could be on the road.

The school boards at Blyth really aren't helping things either which I have a feeling might be the main reason for evening peaks going to pot as it's taking buses out which then are pretty much hopeless as they're miles away.

Mind there has to be serious questions on why the X30 is running when the core routes are being messed up completely. I've just noticed that the 17:45 X30 ran which was the exact same time one of the X7's was cancelled tonight which was the bus which should've ran that bus as it came off a cancelled X8 towards Newcastle. Poor allocating that imo.

I'd had the same thought about the school buses, it seems to be the thing creating the occasional 1 hour gap in the X7/8/9 cycle as during the 10am-3pm window they seem to be limiting any cancellations to maybe 1 bus off at most. 

I think they'll prioritise the X30 given there are only 2 per direction? That, and I imagine it's probably pretty easy to ask a driver to stay back for one X30 from town (if it is a driver issue, rather than vehicle).

(14 Sep 2023, 10:16 pm)mb134 wrote I'd had the same thought about the school buses, it seems to be the thing creating the occasional 1 hour gap in the X7/8/9 cycle as during the 10am-3pm window they seem to be limiting any cancellations to maybe 1 bus off at most. 

I think they'll prioritise the X30 given there are only 2 per direction? That, and I imagine it's probably pretty easy to ask a driver to stay back for one X30 from town (if it is a driver issue, rather than vehicle).

Yeah it seems stuff is dropping out for them and then not returning into service no doubt be the end of the shift for them.

Yeah that's true mind I suppose as the X7 is a hell of a bus route at rush hour. Mind that said, that probably doesn't help either as the traffic is much worse in an evening and they're regularly upto 20 minutes late which could knock driver hours off so they couldn't do another return trip without going over especially by the time they're 30 - 40 minutes late which isn't uncommon.

Could explain why buses aren't returning to Newcastle on the 306 aswell.

(14 Sep 2023, 10:23 pm)Storx wrote Yeah it seems stuff is dropping out for them and then not returning into service no doubt be the end of the shift for them.

Yeah that's true mind I suppose as the X7 is a hell of a bus route at rush hour. Mind that said, that probably doesn't help either as the traffic is much worse in an evening and they're regularly upto 20 minutes late which could knock driver hours off so they couldn't do another return trip without going over especially by the time they're 30 - 40 minutes late which isn't uncommon.

Could explain why buses aren't returning to Newcastle on the 306 aswell.

It's a shame that the X7/8/9 seem to be impacted the most (the X10/11 seem to be relatively fine, as are the 43/44/45) with cancelled trips, but I guess at the moment with the amount of new drivers being trained as soon as one is late then realistically they're not the sort of routes inexperienced drivers can make loads of time up on which will lead to more disruption.

I was waiting for an X11 in Cramlington towards town today, and on the map it was 10 minutes or so away. Happened to look up as an X10 (running a couple of minutes behind schedule) came off the roundabout. Jumped up and got on it but it's an example of the reliance put on live tracking by many members of the public, myself included, versus the scheduled service. The bus in question, 7621, has not tracked on Bustimes for nearly a week.

Is there a need for a bus every like 4 mins to Blyth with the X7/8/9/10/11 & 308/9

(17 Sep 2023, 5:06 pm)Unber43 wrote Is there a need for a bus every like 4 mins to Blyth with the X7/8/9/10/11 & 308/9

Are you just purposely ignoring the fact they're all wildly different routes serving different towns and villages?

(17 Sep 2023, 5:17 pm)mb134 wrote Are you just purposely ignoring the fact they're all wildly different routes serving different towns and villages?

I know they serve loads of different places but would there not be maybe be a away to cut atleast one of them and adjust another or a few to cover the same area, especially with the driver shortage

(17 Sep 2023, 5:18 pm)Unber43 wrote I know they serve loads of different places but would there not be maybe be a away to cut atleast one of them and adjust another or a few to cover the same area, especially with the driver shortage

The only services you could realistically cut like that is one of the expresses and extend it onto the end of the 43 but it wouldn't be popular.

ie. 43 split every 30 minutes via the X9/X10/X11 route from Cramlington or Seaton Burn to Blyth.

(17 Sep 2023, 5:27 pm)Storx wrote The only services you could realistically cut like that is one of the expresses and extend it onto the end of the 43 but it wouldn't be popular.

ie. 43 split every 30 minutes via the X9/X10/X11 route from Cramlington or Seaton Burn to Blyth.

The X9 would be horrendous if you were to do that to it, it's already the longest route from Blyth to Cramlington out of the current express routes. 

Similarly with the X10/11, you then unbalance the interworking pattern on those and you probably push the demand to the one which remains an express. It would also reduce capacity on the 43/X10/11 to Newcastle during the peaks, which I don't think they could cope with at present. 

Fiddling with the X7 is off the table, nothing else can serve Seghill, Seaton Delaval, Seaton Sluice, New Hartley easily. Similarly with the X8, nothing can easily be diverted to serve South Beach (you can't send an X10/11 without killing the service through Newsham), or High Pit. With both routes, no other route can be easily diverted to serve Burradon or Quorum.

(17 Sep 2023, 5:58 pm)mb134 wrote The X9 would be horrendous if you were to do that to it, it's already the longest route from Blyth to Cramlington out of the current express routes. 

Similarly with the X10/11, you then unbalance the interworking pattern on those and you probably push the demand to the one which remains an express. It would also reduce capacity on the 43/X10/11 to Newcastle during the peaks, which I don't think they could cope with at present. 

Fiddling with the X7 is off the table, nothing else can serve Seghill, Seaton Delaval, Seaton Sluice, New Hartley easily. Similarly with the X8, nothing can easily be diverted to serve South Beach (you can't send an X10/11 without killing the service through Newsham), or High Pit. With both routes, no other route can be easily diverted to serve Burradon or Quorum.

Aye totally agreed, wasn't a suggestion tbh, was more the only thing that's possible at all.

Not sure what loadings are like on them but the best thing you could probably do is drop the 43/44/45 back down to every 10 minutes combined with the X30 scrapped. Not sure how doable that would be though.

Hopefully they can sort the driver issue out though to be honest, probably the easier thing to do.

I find it funny when bus enthusiasts think they run the company on here, and other pages

(18 Sep 2023, 8:15 pm)Solofan444 wrote I find it funny when bus enthusiasts think they run the company on here, and other pages

It's a discussion forum. People discuss things. That's how it works? 

No one is claiming to run a company.

Quite a few Blyth buses appear to be tracking incorrectly again. 7501, 7556, 7605, and 7612 are all tracking on 2 boards each as far as I can tell.

The second 7501 looks to have stopped tracking earlier at Haymarket, so I assume the bus has either broken there or it's given up trying to track.

(02 Oct 2023, 12:19 pm)mb134 wrote Quite a few Blyth buses appear to be tracking incorrectly again. 7501, 7556, 7605, and 7612 are all tracking on 2 boards each as far as I can tell.

The second 7501 looks to have stopped tracking earlier at Haymarket, so I assume the bus has either broken there or it's given up trying to track.

I passed what I believe was 7501 being towed near Brunton Park around 7pm.

Isn't really a thread for it, but Blyth look to be duplicating a 308 and X11 tonight for the football.

Ashington are duplicating an X21, a Morpeth express, and have 7542 doing a 306 extra.