(15 May 2014, 7:33 pm)aureolin wrote It's not just me that always feels like I'm going to be flung head first through a windscreen then?

Absolutely no way. I get worried every morning when I walk down the steps of the 21 because of the way the brakes work, but also one of our regular drivers on it tends to brake really hard and unexpectedly; I was holding on for dear life when we had 3804 about two weeks ago. On Scholars it's even worse when your battling your way through little Year 7s who are bouncing off the windows.

EDIT: I can't help but agree with what Tyresmoke says, for example the Gemini's on the 21 are absolutely terrible for brakes as I've just said, but when 3825 was always allocated to the 887 during it's tenure at Chester it was one of the smoothest vehicles I've ever rode. The Renowns on the Lime are, albeit it old, VERY smooth on the brakes, unless a driver slams on them.

(15 May 2014, 7:47 pm)tyresmoke wrote Modern buses tend to brake on the retarder more and have a habit of the brakes biting at the last minute as you come to a stop... Pulsars are terrible for this and it's bloody annoying as a driver too!

Seems strange. Is it across all Pulsars? Or just certain vehicles in each fleet?

(15 May 2014, 8:25 pm)aureolin wrote Seems strange. Is it across all Pulsars? Or just certain vehicles in each fleet?

Every one I've driven does it. The MANs at Stagecoach were the same.

(15 May 2014, 10:02 pm)tyresmoke wrote Every one I've driven does it. The MANs at Stagecoach were the same.

Pretty sure the accelerator issue was what caused the crash in CBS with the MAN when they were new.

(16 May 2014, 6:24 am)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Pretty sure the accelerator issue was what caused the crash in CBS with the MAN when they were new.

Wasn't that an ALX200 Dart?

(16 May 2014, 7:10 am)tyresmoke wrote Wasn't that an ALX200 Dart?

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/mar/1...wainwright
It was yes - my mistake

http://news.sky.com/story/1272392/cow-ma...five-years

Make your own mind up... It is certainly one of lifes mysteries this one!

(30 May 2014, 9:50 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote http://news.sky.com/story/1272392/cow-ma...five-years

Make your own mind up... It is certainly one of lifes mysteries this one!

Cornwall. What do you expect?

(30 May 2014, 9:50 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote http://news.sky.com/story/1272392/cow-ma...five-years

Make your own mind up... It is certainly one of lifes mysteries this one!

FREAK

(30 May 2014, 10:18 pm)marxistafozzski wrote FREAK

You seem a tad more taken aback than AdamY!

I have heard and seen and heard some shit in my time (pun very much intended), I know someone who was allegedly caught getting a BJ off a Border Collie, seen stories of people caught pleasuring goats, horses and sheep, but that is by far the most fucked up of all

(30 May 2014, 10:33 pm)marxistafozzski wrote I have heard and seen and heard some shit in my time (pun very much intended), I know someone who was allegedly caught getting a BJ off a Border Collie, seen stories of people caught pleasuring goats, horses and sheep, but that is by far the most fucked up of all

I disagree.

Bestiality in any form is animal cruelty as far as I'm concerned. If any of acts listed were committed against a person it would be considered as sexual assault at the very least. It is utterly unacceptable, man or beast.

Granted, breaking into someone's farmyard is a no-no. But rolling around in cow manure, although unhygienic and weird, is mild in comparison to bestiality. As a fetish, is it that much different scat or water-sports?

(31 May 2014, 9:42 am)AdamY wrote I disagree.

Bestiality in any form is animal cruelty as far as I'm concerned. If any of acts listed were committed against a person it would be considered as sexual assault at the very least. It is utterly unacceptable, man or beast.

Granted, breaking into someone's farmyard is a no-no. But rolling around in cow manure, although unhygienic and weird, is mild in comparison to bestiality. As a fetish, is it that much different scat or water-sports?

Good point...

On a scale of 1-10 it is all off the scale

(31 May 2014, 9:42 am)AdamY wrote I disagree.

Bestiality in any form is animal cruelty as far as I'm concerned. If any of acts listed were committed against a person it would be considered as sexual assault at the very least. It is utterly unacceptable, man or beast.

Granted, breaking into someone's farmyard is a no-no. But rolling around in cow manure, although unhygienic and weird, is mild in comparison to bestiality. As a fetish, is it that much different scat or water-sports?

Looking at the first point, I think the difference was that no matter how perverse, weird or whatever else that beastiality, scat etc are - we had heard of them before.
Not sure if any of us, have seen, read, taken part in or heard about this particular fetish.

Unless it appeared on Eurotrash? It sounds like the type of thing that appeared on there!

(02 Jun 2014, 9:13 am)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Looking at the first point, I think the difference was that no matter how perverse, weird or whatever else that beastiality, scat etc are - we had heard of them before.
Not sure if any of us, have seen, read, taken part in or heard about this particular fetish.

Unless it appeared on Eurotrash? It sounds like the type of thing that appeared on there!

Eurotrash who was the woman with huge tits I heard she died a few year ago

(02 Jun 2014, 10:40 am)marxistafozzski wrote Eurotrash who was the woman with huge tits I heard she died a few year ago

Lola Ferrari!

(02 Jun 2014, 11:11 am)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Lola Ferrari!

If you sucked on them fun bags you would need to call a Fire Brigade Rescue to free you

I believe Lola Ferrari is brown-bread now.

Just been reading about here, she croaked it 14 years, each tit weighed 2.8kg...

That must have given her a bad back

I have been travelling all over the country for the latter part of the week, using bus, tube and train for the majority of the time, whilst down south.

Based on the Hampshire/Berkshire border, I had to commute around Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire, before heading home. I may have gone into Wiltshire at one point too.

There was no bother with anything majorly delayed. Fares were always reasonable. Everything seemed clean and tidy. Connections (of which there were many) were made without any fuss. Except once.

That once? When getting off the train in Durham and heading for a bus from North Road.
Apart from the inevitable delays, there were timetables which contradicted themselves and when I asked a GNE driver about a particular missing service, I got a mumbled answer, that made no sense whatsoever.

Stagecoach in Andover, Reading Buses, TfL Northern Line, East Coast, Great Western, CrossCountry, South West... No issues.
Step off the train, come slap bang, face first into DCC and GNE at their very worst.

Why can it work with umpteen organisations and operators up and down the country, but not at home?

Welcome home Andreos...

(14 Jun 2014, 1:47 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote I have been travelling all over the country for the latter part of the week, using bus, tube and train for the majority of the time, whilst down south.

Based on the Hampshire/Berkshire border, I had to commute around Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire, before heading home. I may have gone into Wiltshire at one point too.

There was no bother with anything majorly delayed. Fares were always reasonable. Everything seemed clean and tidy. Connections (of which there were many) were made without any fuss. Except once.

That once? When getting off the train in Durham and heading for a bus from North Road.
Apart from the inevitable delays, there were timetables which contradicted themselves and when I asked a GNE driver about a particular missing service, I got a mumbled answer, that made no sense whatsoever.

Stagecoach in Andover, Reading Buses, TfL Northern Line, East Coast, Great Western, CrossCountry, South West... No issues.
Step off the train, come slap bang, face first into DCC and GNE at their very worst.

Why can it work with umpteen organisations and operators up and down the country, but not at home?

Welcome home Andreos...

I tend to have no issues outside of the combined authority, although saying that, the infrastructure is a lot better elsewhere. We've suffered from either bad highway planning or lack of investment for decades, and it really shows.

(14 Jun 2014, 1:47 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote I have been travelling all over the country for the latter part of the week, using bus, tube and train for the majority of the time, whilst down south.

Based on the Hampshire/Berkshire border, I had to commute around Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire, before heading home. I may have gone into Wiltshire at one point too.

There was no bother with anything majorly delayed. Fares were always reasonable. Everything seemed clean and tidy. Connections (of which there were many) were made without any fuss. Except once.

That once? When getting off the train in Durham and heading for a bus from North Road.
Apart from the inevitable delays, there were timetables which contradicted themselves and when I asked a GNE driver about a particular missing service, I got a mumbled answer, that made no sense whatsoever.

Stagecoach in Andover, Reading Buses, TfL Northern Line, East Coast, Great Western, CrossCountry, South West... No issues.
Step off the train, come slap bang, face first into DCC and GNE at their very worst.

Why can it work with umpteen organisations and operators up and down the country, but not at home?

Welcome home Andreos...

So because you got a mumbled answer from a driver, this is GNE at its very worse and can I ask which service you were asking about?

Also, in London as we know TfL are funded in a multiple ways whereby up home we are not. Does Nexus, DCC, NCC get income from business rates to prop up local transport service for example, along with government grants?

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tf...are-funded

(14 Jun 2014, 2:55 pm)citaro5284 wrote So because you got a mumbled answer from a driver, this is GNE at its very worse????

Luckily that post didn't vanish eh?

No, it isn't just a mumbled answer from the driver that is GNE at it's very worst.

If you read the post again; particularly the section about the delays, timetable contradictions, mumbled answers that don't make sense and (depending which timetable I used/referred to), at least one missing service.

(14 Jun 2014, 2:55 pm)citaro5284 wrote Also, in London as we know TfL are funded in a multiple ways whereby up home we are not. Does Nexus, DCC, NCC get income from business rates to prop up local transport service for example, along with government grants?

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tf...are-funded

Hey, if TfL prop up the service across the areas I travelled in then yeah - totally relevant to the point I was making...
Here's me thinking the only portion of my journey which fell under the TfL banner was on the Northern Line

(14 Jun 2014, 2:53 pm)aureolin wrote I tend to have no issues outside of the combined authority, although saying that, the infrastructure is a lot better elsewhere. We've suffered from either bad highway planning or lack of investment for decades, and it really shows.

The lack of investment (public or private), really does show the region up badly.
Imagine a tourist or business person from another part of the country or abroad, experiencing the good, bad and ugly mentioned in the example?

Durham Bus Station, GNE AND ANE...

Been through North Road twice today - this evening, I noticed there were no 20's for over half an hour.
Noticed a 20 arrive just before 16:00, it unloaded up the top, waited, waited a bit more and then pulled into the layover bay at the back.
A 20a had arrived by this point (changes onto the 16.15 x20).
The 16:00 (according to the timetables anyway) didn't run (despite a vehicle being parked up and apparently arriving on time) - which meant the queue of people waiting for an eastbound bus, all piled onto the x20, meaning the waiting vehicle (whichever run it decided to do) and another that had arrived on the meantime, had basically nowt left to carry.

ANE - buses pulling into the bus station this morning onto the correct stand, decided to do so 10mins before the scheduled departure time (going off the DCC timetables and despite the layover bay being empty), which meant other vehicles were forced to use adjoining stands - resulting in a domino effect...
This evening when I arrived into Durham to get my connecting bus, it looked like Armageddon!
Presumably due to a similar issue to this morning, I witnessed a Middlesbrough bound x1, parked in the top stand, rather than 3rd from the bottom!

It kept me entertained whilst standing for my bus anyway, but why does it have to be like that?

Some Arriva drivers show no regard to their colleges and certainly not to other operators when using Durham bus station. Perhaps DCC should start monitoring and fining for over occupation of stands.

5213 - lost count how many times it has turned up over the last few weeks since I noticed the dodgy CCTV screen and scribbled on fleet number.

It doesn't seem to matter what time of the day it is or which point I am getting on the 20/20a - it is omnipresent!

It is still rocking gently when idling in traffic too.

(24 Jun 2014, 4:42 pm)aureolin wrote Some Arriva drivers show no regard to their colleges and certainly not to other operators when using Durham bus station. Perhaps DCC should start monitoring and fining for over occupation of stands.

I know what you mean - I've got an example from Saturday.

So, I had just gotten off 7619 on the X2 in Durham, and after about 10 minutes, 7627 came in on the return X2 from Middlesbrough. 3862 on the 15s had been parked up at the top setting off passengers before-hand, and the cheeky bugger cut in front of him!

When I boarded the 15A - I was in one of the East Durham Service stands!

Just because they are the primary operators in Durham Bus Stn - doesn't mean they own it!

I am a big fan of fish and chips (got to be with a portion of curry and a big portion of extra batter), however, whenever I have had some in Nottinghamshire or Lincolnshire, the fish always has its skin on.
Just had some again tonight and found skin hiding underneath the batter.

Anyone any ideas why or where the skin on/skin off border might be?

Why do people insist on using phones in the quiet coach. Are they stupid, ignorant or both?

Probably both.

My mobile phone mystery is how can anyone bare having their phone make a noise everytime they press anything, once had someone sat next on the bus endless texting away with a noise made everytime they keyed a letter / word into it, I wanted to punch them because it was that annoying.