Where are all the Consett X lines deckers these days? On the scrap heap?

(09 Aug 2025, 1:05 pm)DodgepotMcDougal wrote Where are all the Consett X lines deckers these days? On the scrap heap?

Bottom line, only 14x available (not including temperamental 6336/37) to cover a PVR of 12x boards needing low height deckers. Not forgetting that the X45 is also short of deckers with E400MMC also doing the X45.

That combined with pressure to turn around any fixes and the usual engineering issues = longer term issues especially if issues not addressed early on.

GNE had no issues when the low height PVR was only 8x (X30/X31 & X45) before July 2024.

3941, 3962, 6180, 6973 have all been withdrawn according to GNE fleet list

4th Deptford bus I've seen over the past 2 days with a non-working headlight, today's spot was 5531.

(23 Aug 2025, 10:44 pm)WestDurhamSwift wrote 3941, 3962, 6180, 6973 have all been withdrawn according to GNE fleet list

Had a feeling the B7 Gemini's would start to be withdrawn this summer following the loss of Nexus Contracts.

(23 Aug 2025, 10:44 pm)WestDurhamSwift wrote 3941, 3962, 6180, 6973 have all been withdrawn according to GNE fleet list

3962? At least everyone on my estate won't be waking up at 5am any more ...

(08 Aug 2025, 8:16 pm)BusLoverMum wrote I noticed a getting ready to start on its Newcastle bound route at CLS showing all the via points as if it had started at Brandon, this afternoon. Probably a related issue.

28b on a  Sunday from kibblesworth - drivers sometimes use the display as if its travel from Chest le street - good thing they've dont use it on way back!

On 58 on way to match yesterday - all i'll say in Bus stop 1 - Left wing mirror NIL

(23 Aug 2025, 10:44 pm)WestDurhamSwift wrote 3941, 3962, 6180, 6973 have all been withdrawn according to GNE fleet list

 3941, 3962, 6973 all on the back fence at Riverside being stripped of panels this afternoon.

I hope someone preserves one of them new to GNE 39XX B7's. They are absolutely epic!

Gemini 2s look much better with the black headlight surrounds.
(Not sure why there’s a grey lip under the windscreen though?)

6160 in Driving Careers advertisement
https://flic.kr/p/2rqJGuc

(01 Sep 2025, 1:19 pm)ne14ne1 wrote Gemini 2s look much better with the black headlight surrounds.
(Not sure why there’s a grey lip under the windscreen though?)

6160 in Driving Careers advertisement
https://flic.kr/p/2rqJGuc

I might be naive but I really don't get the message on that advert and I'm genuinely not being sarcastic. 

Who's they and build you up to what exactly? Seems very random.

It sounds like something from a political campaign, not advertising for vacancies.

(01 Sep 2025, 2:19 pm)Storx wrote I might be naive but I really don't get the message on that advert and I'm genuinely not being sarcastic. 

Who's they and build you up to what exactly? Seems very random.

It sounds like something from a political campaign, not advertising for vacancies.

Yeah I’m not sure if ‘they’ are other bus companies or other employers in general. 

I reckon it will take new recruits about 1 day talking with thier mentor to work out the message on the side of the bus is load of rubbish.

What is the PVR of the venture services now, is it 2?

Hownsgill currently have 4  Solos and at least 2 of them appear on routes which are usually deckers. 

First day the kids were back to school today, and they had a minibus running around on the X5/X15 for half of the day. 

6 weeks to prepare, and still not enough deckers?

Same again today, Solos on the 16 & X5

(01 Sep 2025, 2:19 pm)Storx wrote I might be naive but I really don't get the message on that advert and I'm genuinely not being sarcastic. 

Who's they and build you up to what exactly? Seems very random.

It sounds like something from a political campaign, not advertising for vacancies.

I had to zoom in but it's a message about empowering women in employment. 

Slightly clunky to say the least but its there. I'd imagine real empowerment would be more women in senior roles, engineering etc but hey ho

(03 Sep 2025, 2:19 pm)Ambassador wrote I had to zoom in but it's a message about empowering women in employment. 

Slightly clunky to say the least but its there. I'd imagine real empowerment would be more women in senior roles, engineering etc but hey ho

Must admit, I didn't read that from that message, but won't fault them on the general message.

Don't know who signed that off, no doubt a bloke, because I'm sure most women wouldn't be touched by it - at all.

(01 Sep 2025, 1:19 pm)ne14ne1 wrote Gemini 2s look much better with the black headlight surrounds.
(Not sure why there’s a grey lip under the windscreen though?)

6160 in Driving Careers advertisement
https://flic.kr/p/2rqJGuc

6161 is going into the same livery.

(03 Sep 2025, 4:48 pm)WestDurhamSwift wrote 6161 is going into the same livery.

Already done!!

(03 Sep 2025, 2:25 pm)Storx wrote Must admit, I didn't read that from that message, but won't fault them on the general message.

Don't know who signed that off, no doubt a bloke, because I'm sure most women wouldn't be touched by it - at all.

There's also another TV ad to go with this campaign where women are cleaning/driving a StreetLite, it's just as bad, if not worse than the all-over bus wrap.

(03 Sep 2025, 10:01 pm)Jimmi wrote There's also another TV ad to go with this campaign where women are cleaning/driving a StreetLite, it's just as bad, if not worse than the all-over bus wrap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgIp_G90WD8

This one I guess? Pretty cringe, I must admit, just a lot of buzzwords with absolutely no meaning, if you ask me. Having a large section on a woman cleaning is rather ironic aswell.

That is dreadful. It draws attention to stereotypes more than it debunks them and, as for the cleaning - what the .…?

They often make it seem like, up until a few years ago, no woman had ever worked in the bus industry before.

It's such an egregious, single issue recruitment strategy. It literally internalises outdated and preconceived ideas about women and their abilities. You'd be forgiven for thinking that video's target audience was housewives at home in the 1960s listening to the wireless while cleaning and preparing meals.

While I'll concede that, by nature of the job, the engineering faculty of any bus operator will be massively under-representative of women, with probably more in the few admin roles than in overalls on the shop floor, they blow this out of proportion across the board. Clerical and administrative roles within the company have often been occupied by women with long service rates, and many of those still there today will have completed YTS courses upon leaving school in the 80s and 90s. There are probably just as many, if not more, women than men in these office-based roles if you discount operations management. They'd have far more had they not made them redundant.

If you looked at the seniority lists for drivers at all of their depots (perhaps except Sunderland, although there was one long serving lady there until quite recently), you'd see at least one - often multiple - women drivers who have had a 25 year long service award. The longest serving driver at Chester when it closed was a woman with 45 years in. I believe the longest server at Percy Main now is a woman with nearly 45 years as well. The blonde driver in that video will have been at Gateshead for about thirty years. Remember that long service rates have massively downturned over the last few years and there will be very few drivers joining the company today or even since the pandemic who will end up becoming long servers themselves. There are lots more women working within the company with historic service that broke it, I dare say in most cases to start families.

A female friend of mine is a freight train driver. She always says you can't be what you can't see. So any efforts to improve the diversity of the workforce is a good thing in my book.

She used to be a GNE driver but moved to GCT and is now at Stagecoach Sunderland, and I was in Park Lane the other day, there were 2 female coach drivers, 1 female arriva driver and 3 female GNE drivers. It looked so empowering, really, from a male-dominated industry, especially considering the age of the drivers varied from young to middle-aged, etc.

Tbh I was in Park Lane once waiting for the X6, and a 61/60/700/2A all pulled out one after each other all with women drivers

I think having watched their recruitment video, I didn't see anything mentioned about customer service. Also it screamed out what we will give you, not what we expect from you, such as having a positive attitude, being safe & reliable & having a good aspect of customer service etc.

Regardless of who is driving the bus, as long as the service is being delivered punctually, that's all anybody can ask for. Although just because somebody is the opposite gender, or has a disability or limitations, should not mean they can't have the same opportunities, as at the end of the day most jobs can be taught, and once anybody gets used to something they should in theory get better at it.

Also just based on the recruitment advert alone, it just appears to an outsider as a box ticking exercise, just rushed out to say we are supporting or doing this as a company. No real explanation to say why, similar with other recent campaigns they have embarked on, whilst the quality of their bus services continues to get worse.

Similar story across the industry however, it just appears the main focus is to maximise revenue, whereby employees increasingly feel as though they are just payroll numbers, with minimum investment in new resources, more stress brought on by reduced running times, more stopping on journeys due to frequencys being slashed, older buses brought in to most areas that were not council focused areas for funding & investment in new vehicles.

Then drivers getting it in the neck from management for the slightest thing in some cases, can be some of the big reasons for high turnover, not to mention some not being able to plan their life around changing shift patterns. You only have to take a read of employee reviews of why somebody left a company & most reasons are similar to with each other in some way, or indeed talk to drivers who may be with another company, and most would likely share their experience with the previous operator.

Although saying that, the retention at smaller independent operators seems to be much greater, where drivers seem to feel much more valued & appreciated, want to actually be at work, and feel they can talk to their boss as though they are part of the same team & not out to find any reason to make their job harder or give them a disciplinary. Also it just seems to a customer, especially on vehicles that don't have covered cab screens, that it's easier to interact with the driver when boarding & alighting the vehicle, and you tend to find the driver will actually acknowledge their customers much better & provide good customer service to them.

Another attraction of independents for female drivers would be the reduced likelihood of being expected to work late at night. I wouldn't fancy being the driver of a bus carrying nowt but a group of pissed blokes through a housing estate at 10:30pm.

Corporate Streetlite parked up at Chilton Moor yesterday afternoon, missing some of its offside engine panels.
That and the green one behind it, causing absolute chaos on the junction.

3965 now withdrawn. 6160 now at Riverside and out on the Loop today.