(26 Apr 2014, 8:35 pm)robisdave15 wrote What might the point be in writing down the times ? What's that going to achieve? Last year we had the farce with the E400's - totally unsuitable for the route and demands placed on them by a greedy operator - and now we've got these clapped out and frankly scruffy, cast offs from London! Tell me? What good does giving something a respray solve? Arriva choose to operate this route double deck not to solve the overcrowding issues but essentially, to save money. I, like a lot of people, would like to travel to the seaside, but not with Arriva.

What's the point in writing them down? To give them some idea of how the service is performing re late running and lost mileage. (Even if they do then doctor the figures before publishing them...)

(26 Apr 2014, 9:43 pm)robisdave15 wrote I apologise if I upset anyone along the way but such is life. My interpretation of "improving" a service though is buses that run to time and can be relied on; at present that's not what is happening on the 93's. Statistics may say otherwise but facts blow a hole in that? I've read what is posted here, listened to other people's tales of woe and experienced it at first hand! It's a fact that if it wasn't for the efforts of the Whitby based operating staff it would have been worse than it has been. Until recently, for example (the last round of service changes) they were sent every poor vehicle that Redcar could manage and breakdowns/service failures were rife, now thankfully with the introduction of Pulsars in the x4/4 and these B7's - such as they are - on the X93 then things might just be looking up? I've not yet seen the new 'summer' timetable for the 93, just hope those at Arriva have provided a sensible timetable for a change.

Totally agree Robisdave.

(26 Apr 2014, 10:01 pm)tyresmoke wrote The service would be better if Whitby was paired with Stockton and not Redcar - but thankfully with intervention from director level things are improving at Redcar and Whitby with allocations becoming more solid as a result.

The B7 Geminis are not ideal but they're a stop gap measure which seems to be working for now, time will tell whether they can last the summer without major failures!

The new timetable for the summer sees 8 vehicles running, 6 double decks from Whitby and 2 single decks (hopefully Pulsars?!) based at Redcar. More running time is included, and layover time in Whitby is increased from 5 minutes to 8 minutes in an attempt to combat loading issues. In Middlesbrough it will depart from Stand 9 at 20 past the hour, plus the morning extras at 0850 and 0950. Most arrivals and departures in Scarborough will link with the Transpennine trains from/to York, Leeds and Manchester with through fares to be available (I believe)

Hopefully Omnicities!

Maybe not the correct place but the X93 has when you look back outgrown itself. I remember the days when we had just two full trips per day operated out of Loftus depot (United/Tees) and from what I recall, a service operated out of the then Whitby depot (United/Tees) between Whitby,Robin Hoods Bay and Scarborough? Then times and life moved on. Whitby depot closed and the services were operated using vehicles based at Loftus - at least this was closer and more appropriate than Redcar. Then Arriva landed, closed down Loftus in the belief that everything could be operated/managed from Redcar. Why it dId this, apart from the need to save money, clearly hasn't worked!

(27 Apr 2014, 10:54 am)robisdave15 wrote That's an issue that is hard to address, sadly the public don't see it that way as I'm sure Tyresmoke will agree? We suffer at times on our 5/5a services which happens, in part, because of the different diagrame that these services operate. A 5, for example operating out of town on a morning when the schools can fall behind and despite the extra running time, find it difficult to catch up. You then get a 5a service operating a different diagram running to time but right behind the late 5 and so it goes on. I understand how it works but as I say, the public (most of them) don't!

The only real problem on the 5s is Cargo Fleet Lane. The lights at the trunk road coming into Middlesbrough cause the traffic to back up to College Road during the day (pretty much all day now!) and at peak times it's often back to the Greenway! We get given 9 mins from Ormesby roundabout to North Ormesby market place, it can sometimes take double that... Having said that, North Ormesby is getting just as bad, this afternoon it took me 14 mins to get from the market place to Morrisons!
The school loadings to/from Nunthorpe are an issue too, but it only really affects the afternoon when they're all coming out at once, whereas the morning ones are more spread out over two journeys (0745 and 0800 out of Middlesbrough, both take a standing load to Swans Corner)

Hello, All

Does anyone who where North East All Zones end or Map of zones is please?

Thanks also, They for offering free Day m ticket vaild anytime this year (You pick the day of Travel) offer ends May 4th.

http://www.arrivabus.co.uk/catchthebusweek/

7508, back in service at Ashington still with "the Alnwick Castle" branding, running with Durham County legals. Surprised they were changed for the short period it was at Redcar.

Thanks for your PM Scott, come back to that later? Just a point about what you say about the 5/5a? On M'bro bound trips do we really need a timing point at North Ormesby Market Place? I know it's just a small point but on several journeys recently we've sat in the Market Place waiting for time when given the number of services passing this point couldn't these minutes be better used to help services maintain the schedules?

(29 Apr 2014, 6:10 am)robisdave15 wrote Thanks for your PM Scott, come back to that later? Just a point about what you say about the 5/5a? On M'bro bound trips do we really need a timing point at North Ormesby Market Place? I know it's just a small point but on several journeys recently we've sat in the Market Place waiting for time when given the number of services passing this point couldn't these minutes be better used to help services maintain the schedules?

To be fair recently I've really struggled to get to the market place on time so if you can get there early it must have been quiet at Brambles Farm! Everything coming into town has a timing point there, even the 22s, so I guess it's just to keep everything the same across all services. The timings on the 5/5As should be getting tweaked in July though.

Scott. Just been on a 5a trip to Skelton Asda and seemingly the word on the street - apparently it's been in the Northern Echo and someone has spoken directly to your depot (?) - is that the 5's are to return to Whitby at the next round of service changes? Our driver - 1037hrs - trip ex G'boro knew nothing except that the Redcar drivers who campaigned to get them changed now don't like them because they are hard work! Think there are more problems at Redcar than just management and engineering?

(29 Apr 2014, 6:10 am)robisdave15 wrote Thanks for your PM Scott, come back to that later? Just a point about what you say about the 5/5a? On M'bro bound trips do we really need a timing point at North Ormesby Market Place? I know it's just a small point but on several journeys recently we've sat in the Market Place waiting for time when given the number of services passing this point couldn't these minutes be better used to help services maintain the schedules?

Do you mean heading out of town?

No Roland it was just an observation from a morning journey a couple of weeks ago when we sat in North Ormesby Market Place for some 5 minutes on an inbound journey. It's clear looking at the timings for that journey that they are generous to allow for the morning rush hour and our driver, for once, got a good run in.

(29 Apr 2014, 10:21 am)robisdave15 wrote Scott. Just been on a 5a trip to Skelton Asda and seemingly the word on the street - apparently it's been in the Northern Echo and someone has spoken directly to your depot (?) - is that the 5's are to return to Whitby at the next round of service changes? Our driver - 1037hrs - trip ex G'boro knew nothing except that the Redcar drivers who campaigned to get them changed now don't like them because they are hard work! Think there are more problems at Redcar than just management and engineering?

No truth in this one as far as I know. X4 is staying down the coast. May be a possibility of swapping the 5/5A routes over so that Easington, Loftus and Carlin How have a link to Asda which would make sense, to me! I think that's what is being talked about, not sure where the Echo would have got the idea of the 5 being changed back from, maybe it was a letter by someone moaning rather than anything that was going to happen?

Would make some sort of sense I guess? Some idea of what times the buses run from Skelton Asda would be useful? I would call them who do the timetables but hopping across there ain't among my list of things to do!

Seems as though the B7's are settling down to life on the x93 now ? Assume we have 7484 through 89 at Redcar, allocated Whitby? Are they going to keep any E400's to make up the peak PVR or what? Pulsars have never, to my knowledge, being used on the route but then I guess they would need to be tacho fitted? Be interesting to see how one of the good ones would cope in and out of RHB.

(29 Apr 2014, 7:38 pm)robisdave15 wrote Seems as though the B7's are settling down to life on the x93 now ? Assume we have 7484 through 89 at Redcar, allocated Whitby? Are they going to keep any E400's to make up the peak PVR or what? Pulsars have never, to my knowledge, being used on the route but then I guess they would need to be tacho fitted? Be interesting to see how one of the good ones would cope in and out of RHB.

I expect that any out of Temsas 4717-4720 will make up the rest of the PVR for the peak timetable because they are already tachograph fitted and they have already been used ('trialed') on the X93 previously and so should be able to cope with the route.

Oh my heart bleeds! I feared that anewer. What's matter with using the Ommis?

(29 Apr 2014, 7:38 pm)robisdave15 wrote Seems as though the B7's are settling down to life on the x93 now ? Assume we have 7484 through 89 at Redcar, allocated Whitby? Are they going to keep any E400's to make up the peak PVR or what? Pulsars have never, to my knowledge, being used on the route but then I guess they would need to be tacho fitted? Be interesting to see how one of the good ones would cope in and out of RHB.

Pulsars were mentioned but obviously at present they're used on X4 and that won't change soon enough to free up some for the X93, unless they found some extra ones from elsewhere? Omnicities would be well suited but they're all booked in for refurbishments so can't use them either, so I guess that leaves Temsas. For now they've got 7501/2 still there though, but 7489 arrived tonight from Ashington so that marks 6 B7s now at Redcar, with 5 already in use and as far as I know there's been no major issues with them, they seem to have settled in well. Time will tell how they do over the summer but they must have had engine overhauls done as they're doing well. Obviously they don't have the power to climb hills though, but then we knew that from the X9/X10...

(29 Apr 2014, 8:01 pm)tyresmoke wrote Pulsars were mentioned but obviously at present they're used on X4 and that won't change soon enough to free up some for the X93, unless they found some extra ones from elsewhere? Omnicities would be well suited but they're all booked in for refurbishments so can't use them either, so I guess that leaves Temsas. For now they've got 7501/2 still there though, but 7489 arrived tonight from Ashington so that marks 6 B7s now at Redcar, with 5 already in use and as far as I know there's been no major issues with them, they seem to have settled in well. Time will tell how they do over the summer but they must have had engine overhauls done as they're doing well. Obviously they don't have the power to climb hills though, but then we knew that from the X9/X10...

Can't they use B10BLE's 4501/4513/4515/4522 as they are all fitted with Tachographs and would peform well on the route. They were fantastic on the 85/685, and they are equally as demanding.

So, given that, what's going to happen when the Streetlites finally arrive? Clearly, we hope, they are going to be route specific and that leaves, in an ideal world, Redcar with spare vehicles. In reality though we know that this will just - hopefully - let them finally withdraw some of the **** that they are running presently.

(29 Apr 2014, 8:01 pm)tyresmoke wrote Pulsars were mentioned but obviously at present they're used on X4 and that won't change soon enough to free up some for the X93, unless they found some extra ones from elsewhere? Omnicities would be well suited but they're all booked in for refurbishments so can't use them either, so I guess that leaves Temsas. For now they've got 7501/2 still there though, but 7489 arrived tonight from Ashington so that marks 6 B7s now at Redcar, with 5 already in use and as far as I know there's been no major issues with them, they seem to have settled in well. Time will tell how they do over the summer but they must have had engine overhauls done as they're doing well. Obviously they don't have the power to climb hills though, but then we knew that from the X9/X10...

And the 20/20a or long demanding routes like the 21 and x21

(29 Apr 2014, 8:05 pm)Tom wrote Can't they use B10BLE's 4501/4513/4515/4522 as they are all fitted with Tachographs and would peform well on the route. They were fantastic on the 85/685, and they are equally as demanding.

The fact that they are what 14/15 years old and Ashington still use them on some Sunday X18's surely signifies that they are more than capable (4501/13/15)

(29 Apr 2014, 8:27 pm)mb134 wrote The fact that they are what 14/15 years old and Ashington still use them on some Sunday X18's surely signifies that they are more than capable (4501/13/15)

4523 coped well on the 44 to Morpeth on Saturday too, and the interior is in a very good condition, better than the Temsas.

(29 Apr 2014, 8:28 pm)Tom wrote 4523 coped well on the 44 to Morpeth on Saturday too, and the interior is in a very good condition, better than the Temsas.

All of the B10BLE'S I've been on recently have seemed still powerful enough and even the un-refurbished ones have good interiors (4505 today and 4502 Friday)

Never ridden a Tesma so I don't know how bad the seats are in these, are they better or worse than Urban90s seats in the Lowlanders?

(29 Apr 2014, 8:38 pm)Jimmi wrote Never ridden a Tesma so I don't know how bad the seats are in these, are they better or worse than Urban90s seats in the Lowlanders?

Arguably worse! I'd like to see a B10BLE on X93 but Redcar won't be getting all the tacho ones.

(29 Apr 2014, 8:51 pm)tyresmoke wrote Arguably worse! I'd like to see a B10BLE on X93 but Redcar won't be getting all the tacho ones.

Almost 3 hours on Urban90s on Service X61 was truly awful so if these are worse I think I'd sooner stand the whole way to Scarborough!

(29 Apr 2014, 8:38 pm)Jimmi wrote Never ridden a Tesma so I don't know how bad the seats are in these, are they better or worse than Urban90s seats in the Lowlanders?

Possibly the worst bus I've ridden on from the north east big three. And considering they're not even 5 years(?) old yet, some of them sound worse than some of the DAFs and SPDs that GNE got rid of.

Bus driver criticises sentence for drunk 4x4 driver who killed friend in Darlington Town Centre crash.

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/11...tre_crash/

(28 Apr 2014, 11:37 pm)coldav wrote 7508, back in service at Ashington still with "the Alnwick Castle" branding, running with Durham County legals. Surprised they were changed for the short period it was at Redcar.

7511 has got them as well, it was on X21 today