Arriva Buses (including Greenline)

[F262YTJ]

All Arriva North West and Merseyside depots will be on strike from Wednesday too making over 50% of their English operations out. Looks like Arriva UK have serious issues.

 

[GusB]

All Arriva North West and Merseyside depots will be on strike from Wednesday too making over 50% of their English operations out. Looks like Arriva UK have serious issues.

Could you please supply us with the source of this information? Thanks

 

[Andy Pacer]

Could you please supply us with the source of this information? Thanks

Obviously don't know where the OP got the information from but it's on Merseytravel

Bus & Rail Strikes | Passenger Information | Merseytravel

Information ahead of planned bus and rail strike action.

www.merseytravel.gov.uk

People travelling to, from and within the Liverpool City Region are being urged to plan their journeys and check before they travel, ahead of industrial action by members of Unite and GMB on bus services.

Arriva

There is planned strike action by members of Unite and GMB on Arriva services:

• Wednesday 20 July for a continuous, indefinite period

If this action takes place it will affect all Arriva services in the Liverpool City Region.

Stagecoach

There is planned strike action by members of Unite on some Stagecoach services:

• Friday 15 July
• Monday 18 July
• Wednesday 20 July for a continuous, indefinite period

If the action takes place, Stagecoach bus services in Liverpool which operate from the Gillmoss depot will not run but Stagecoach bus services which operate into Liverpool from the Wirral and Southport and Preston will be unaffected.

 

[SteveHFC]

No, local control moved to "South" management early last year at one of the recent shake ups.

Aylesbury, High Wycombe and Milton Keynes remain under "Midlands" although I assume their Trade Union branch is the same as Luton so still doesn't really answer the question.

Ah ok - thanks

 

[Andyh82]

Meanwhile the Arriva Yorkshire strike that started again today is now off again on Friday

https://twitter.com/arrivayorkshire/status/1547209207719550978?s=21&t=i14tDql_gbrlpapK-5r9Uw

We can confirm that Unite have agreed to suspend strike action across Yorkshire whilst we return to talks on a pay offer for Yorkshire members. Services will operate as normal from Friday 15th July and any further strike action will have 14 days’ notice.

Please remember to quote any sources that you refer to in your posts. Thanks

 

[Simon75]

Obviously don't know where the OP got the information from but it's on Merseytravel

Bus & Rail Strikes | Passenger Information | Merseytravel

Information ahead of planned bus and rail strike action.

www.merseytravel.gov.uk

What about Arriva in Greater Manchester and Cheshire?

 

[sonic2009]

What about Arriva in Greater Manchester and Cheshire?

Winsford depot comes under Liverpool so are striking also.

 

[Ste37]

The proposed strike is covering all of the Arriva Northwest region, including Merseyside, Greater Manchester and Cheshire. It is also also affecting services in Lancashire.

 

[RELL6L]

Meanwhile in the south it appears Arriva are to operate new services 335/336 between Rickmansworth, Chorleywood and Amersham from 24 July. Roughly hourly from Rickmansworth to Chorleywood and four journeys on to Amersham but with gaps at school times, this is as part replacement for Carousel 103. The 335 is one journey via Cedars Village. Pretty sure this is tendered.

Oddly the service starts at Watford at 06.00 and finishes at Chorleywood at 20.02 without much time for a break, suggesting drivers are changed during the day. The first journey is Watford depart 06.00 to Amersham arrive 06.39 - what is the point of that? Local depots are at Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury or High Wycombe - nothing is apparent as to which depot is to operate it. It doesn't make sense for any of them to start at Watford at 06.00 to run a journey to Amersham (nearer to all possible depots) which won't carry any passengers.

Challenging to find the timetable, Bucks website only shows the four journeys to Amersham, Hertfordshire does now show it but first few times it came up with an error, Arriva themselves, needless to say, have nothing about it. In these days of staff shortages why are they operating a new service so far from any depot?

 

[Andy Pacer]

Oddly the service starts at Watford at 06.00 and finishes at Chorleywood at 20.02 without much time for a break, suggesting drivers are changed during the day. The first journey is Watford depart 06.00 to Amersham arrive 06.39 - what is the point of that? Local depots are at Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury or High Wycombe - nothing is apparent as to which depot is to operate it. It doesn't make sense for any of them to start at Watford at 06.00 to run a journey to Amersham (nearer to all possible depots) which won't carry any passengers.

It certainly isn't Aylesbury or High Wycombe that will be operating it.
Presumably it's a Herts tender which would determine the timetable?

 

[plebb11]

Carousel buses and Arriva have got together to swop over routes that they work jointly on: carousel will take all service 1 (High Wycombe - Chesham) and arriva will take all 36/37 (High Wycombe - Bourne End)

Latest News - Arriva UK Bus

www.arrivabus.co.uk

All journeys of service 1/1A will be operated by Carousel and all journeys of services 35/36/37 will be operated by Arriva.
Buses will run every 20 minutes on Mondays to Saturdays between High Wycombe and Chesham, with two buses per hour operating to the Pond Park Estate and one bus an hour operating to Hemel Hempstead as it does now. The Sunday service will remain hourly.

All journeys of service 35/36/37 will now be operated by Arriva. Buses will run every 20 minutes on Mondays to Saturdays between High Wycombe and Bourne End, with one bus an hour operating to Maidenhead as it does now. The Sunday service will remain hourly.

Full details of the new timetables from 4th September for the Carousel 1/1A and Arriva 35/36/37 will be available in due course.

Mod note: Please remember to add a quote from external sources. Thanks

 

[RELL6L]

Carousel buses and Arriva have got together to swop over routes that they work jointly on: carousel will take all service 1 (High Wycombe - Chesham) and arriva will take all 36/37 (High Wycombe - Bourne End)

Latest News - Arriva UK Bus

www.arrivabus.co.uk

Mod note: Please remember to add a quote from external sources. Thanks

This is on Arriva's website. It would finally remove Arriva from Amersham and Chesham altogether after decades of history of them and their predecessors in the area including a long standing depot (now Tesco).....

It certainly isn't Aylesbury or High Wycombe that will be operating it.
Presumably it's a Herts tender which would determine the timetable?

Except for the new 336 which will now keep Arriva in Amersham but from the Rickmansworth direction. I guess it will be run from Hemel Hempstead. I accept that Hertfordshire will determine the timetable as it is a tender, I just can't see the point in asking for a 06.00 Watford to Amersham journey! This new service is still not mentioned by Arriva... well it comes up on the timetables if you input 336 but it takes you to a 404 page (not the A404 which the service roughly runs up...!)

 

[miklcct]

Are all Green Line Coaches routes (702, 703, 755, 757, etc.) registered as local bus routes instead of long-distance coaches? How's the regulation different between these routes and proper National Express "coach" routes?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Are all Green Line Coaches routes (702, 703, 755, 757, etc.) registered as local bus routes instead of long-distance coaches? How's the regulation different between these routes and proper National Express "coach" routes?

You've answered your question. They are registered as bus routes as per that legislation. National Express did, and believe they still might in certain places, register parts of some routes as local bus services. They meet the requirements of the legislation, offer local fares (albeit at a premium) and so qualify for Bus Service Operators Grant.

 

[Deerfold]

You've answered your question. They are registered as bus routes as per that legislation. National Express did, and believe they still might in certain places, register parts of some routes as local bus services. They meet the requirements of the legislation, offer local fares (albeit at a premium) and so qualify for Bus Service Operators Grant.

I don't think National Express still register anything as a local bus service.

Unfortunately this means they're no longer any good for a few late night or Sunday journeys on routes with decent daytime weekday services where I used to use them.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I don't think National Express still register anything as a local bus service.

Unfortunately this means they're no longer any good for a few late night or Sunday journeys on routes with decent daytime weekday services where I used to use them.

There used to be a whole range of odd registrations and sections of route registered. IIRC, Chesterfield to Sheffield was such a section as were some longer chunks.

You can still make some odd journeys like Weymouth to Bournemouth.

 

[philthetube]

Clacton to Blackburn used to be all local

 

[RELL6L]

Just found on the Arriva NE page that the 22 and 23 between Sunderland and Peterlee are each going to be reduced from 2bph to 1bph from 7 August. This is a temporary 'driver shortage' measure.
Unless they completely rehash the times then these journeys are going to be 15 minutes apart, leaving a 45 minute gap!
And Go North East have just reduced services on this corridor quite a bit!
The 49 is being reduced too.

Latest News - Arriva UK Bus

www.arrivabus.co.uk

We are making some temporary changes to our bus timetables in Durham, Peterlee, and Sunderland areas from Sunday 7 August​

Bus companies across the area have suffered from the UK-wide driver shortage over recent months, which has resulted in some last-minute cancellations to services within the area. Buses not turning up because of last-minute cancellations goes completely against our service standards and what passengers rightly expect from us. We do not want to let you down, and we are sorry if we have done recently.
As a result, we are making some further temporary changes to the services and timetables that we operate, in order to ensure that we can provide the reliable service that passengers expect and need at this time.

We know that reducing timetables is not a perfect solution, nor do we consider it a permanent one, however the changes we are introducing are designed to ensure critical routes continue to be served, reliably. We feel this is the least disruptive option available to us.

These changes should mean we expect to have a suitable level of available drivers to operate the published timetable and to minimise disruption, whilst we work behind the scenes to recruit new drivers to help us restore our services back to normal frequencies.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our existing drivers, who continue to work extremely hard to run the level of service we do today. Their dedication is exemplary, and we would like to thank them for their continued efforts.

If you know a friend or relative who would like to drive their career forward with Arriva North East, do please let them know we are recruiting. We welcome applicants via arrivabusjobs.co.uk.
The full list of route and timetable changes is below.

Service 22 Durham – Peterlee – Sunderland
Monday to Saturday journeys will be revised to operate hourly between Peterlee and Sunderland. Journeys between Durham and Peterlee will continue to run every 30 minutes.

Service 23 Hartlepool – Peterlee – Sunderland
Journeys will be revised to operate hourly between Peterlee and Sunderland.
Journeys between Hartlepool and Peterlee will continue to run every 30 minutes

Services 49/49A Durham - Brandon
Monday to Saturday daytime journeys will be revised to run every 20 minutes combined, two per hour as service 49 and one per hours as service 49A.

We continue to thank all our customers for their patience and understanding at this time.

Full timetables for all changes listed above are now available on our website and journey planner.

 

[David 90825]

Arriva Northumbria's Jesmond depot is to close by 31 October 2022 with staff being relocated to Ashington, Blyth or Durham. The proposed depot at Shields Road, Byker is not going ahead.

Arriva bus depot to close in October with staff to move

Staff at Arriva's Jesmond depot will move to Ashington, Blyth and Durham

www.chroniclelive.co.uk

Arriva is set to close its Jesmond bus depot later this year, it has revealed in a staff notice.

Approximately 180 staff are employed at the site on Portland Road and are due to be moved out by October 31 2022. The company has proposed that employees will ultimately be moved to depots in Ashington or Blyth (17 and 14 miles away respectively), while the Engine Shop will relocate to Durham (17 miles away).

In November last year, Arriva communicated its intention to staff that it would build a new depot at Shields Road in Byker. However, the company will no longer go ahead with that plan, citing a significant increase in buildings costs and post-covid recovery in Newcastle being slower than anticipated with passengers numbers at 77 percent of pre-pandemic levels.

Arriva also said that the business is currently being supported by the Bus Recovery Grant which ends on October 3 2022, and it believes that it can continue to operate services without having a premises in Newcastle. A two-stage process out of Jesmond is likely to see drivers moving to a temporary location in Blyth until around March 2023 to allow for a safety critical refurbishment of Arriva's Blyth Depot.

Drivers and Duty Managers moving to Ashington would move to a temporary premises in Newcastle before moving to Ashington around March 2023. Engineers and the Engineering Administrator would move to either Blyth, Ashington or a temporary site in Newcastle, while General Manager, Operations Manager and Operations Administrator would temporarily work between Newcastle and Blyth.

 

[RELL6L]

Arriva Northumbria's Jesmond depot is to close by 31 October 2022 with staff being relocated to Ashington, Blyth or Durham. The proposed depot at Shields Road, Byker is not going ahead.

Arriva bus depot to close in October with staff to move

Staff at Arriva's Jesmond depot will move to Ashington, Blyth and Durham

www.chroniclelive.co.uk

This is very poor. Unless many of the staff at Jesmond commute in from the north, which I don’t know, then Arriva are going to lose staff. Why commute out of the city when there are other driving jobs there? And I don’t see how Ashington and Blyth can cover the local services from Newcastle let alone the 685. And I was going to write some positive things about Arriva Northumbria shortly in the trips thread….

By the way does anyone know if the E400s on the X15 and X18 are more powerful than the normal ones? They seem to have more acceleration and top speed than say the newer ones on the X21/X22. They must have done one heck of a high mileage on very demanding services.

 

[NewcastleOne]

This is very poor. Unless many of the staff at Jesmond commute in from the north, which I don’t know, then Arriva are going to lose staff. Why commute out of the city when there are other driving jobs there? And I don’t see how Ashington and Blyth can cover the local services from Newcastle let alone the 685. And I was going to write some positive things about Arriva Northumbria shortly in the trips thread….

By the way does anyone know if the E400s on the X15 and X18 are more powerful than the normal ones? They seem to have more acceleration and top speed than say the newer ones on the X21/X22. They must have done one heck of a high mileage on very demanding services.

Not sure of the technicals of the E400s at Ashington a mix of 57/09/14/64/15 regs on the x services but they do rack the miles up. They are to be displaced by new MMC 400s (72 registrations from September)

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

This is very poor. Unless many of the staff at Jesmond commute in from the north, which I don’t know, then Arriva are going to lose staff. Why commute out of the city when there are other driving jobs there? And I don’t see how Ashington and Blyth can cover the local services from Newcastle let alone the 685. And I was going to write some positive things about Arriva Northumbria shortly in the trips thread….

By the way does anyone know if the E400s on the X15 and X18 are more powerful than the normal ones? They seem to have more acceleration and top speed than say the newer ones on the X21/X22. They must have done one heck of a high mileage on very demanding services.

Probably fair to say that not many drivers live in Jesmond itself! You can expect a load of interworking which won't work as was demonstrated when they closed Bishop Auckland depot. Selling Jesmond makes sense - the alternative solution does not.

As regards the 685, I can't see that working. Perhaps they've already had a chat with Go Ahead or Stagecoach about a route swap?

 

[Geordie driver]

I worked out of Jesmond for 20 years. I was lucky and lived within walking distance of the depot as did quite a few drivers, now I doubt many do, most will live on the outskirts of Newcastle, crossing the river at peak times is a pain and parking at Jesmond a nightmare.

Regarding local service runs in Newcastle and North Tyneside, either it's going to cost a heck of a lot in light running or they will try for remote clock ons and breaks, making the job even less appealing. A job they can't get staff for now.

Speaking to a driver on Saturday, he told me the Walkergate depot is off the cards and those drivers they have left are going to Ashington or Blyth but they still haven't been told which. Taking a car to those depots, at least the car parking is easier.

He also told me 4 drivers walked out on Saturday so sick of their treatment , probably why my service in the evening which has been cut in half to "improve reliability" failed to operate. They were unable to cover those absences, they don't employ spare drivers and the animosity between the company and the drivers means no one wants to help out. Why would anyone give up a rare Saturday night off for them?

I have complained about these missing services, no chance of a refund on my daily ticket and it's everyone's fault (Brexit, COVID, DVLA, the alignment of the moon with the planets) but the company's and their terrible wages and conditions.

They must have a different idea of "improved reliabilty " to me.

 

[Mal]

Rwported on Radio Merseyside this morning that Arriva drivers are voting today amd tomorrow on a new pay offer. If accepted, buses should be running again on Wednesday.

 

[RELL6L]

I worked out of Jesmond for 20 years. I was lucky and lived within walking distance of the depot as did quite a few drivers, now I doubt many do, most will live on the outskirts of Newcastle, crossing the river at peak times is a pain and parking at Jesmond a nightmare.

Regarding local service runs in Newcastle and North Tyneside, either it's going to cost a heck of a lot in light running or they will try for remote clock ons and breaks, making the job even less appealing. A job they can't get staff for now.

Speaking to a driver on Saturday, he told me the Walkergate depot is off the cards and those drivers they have left are going to Ashington or Blyth but they still haven't been told which. Taking a car to those depots, at least the car parking is easier.

He also told me 4 drivers walked out on Saturday so sick of their treatment , probably why my service in the evening which has been cut in half to "improve reliability" failed to operate. They were unable to cover those absences, they don't employ spare drivers and the animosity between the company and the drivers means no one wants to help out. Why would anyone give up a rare Saturday night off for them?

I have complained about these missing services, no chance of a refund on my daily ticket and it's everyone's fault (Brexit, COVID, DVLA, the alignment of the moon with the planets) but the company's and their terrible wages and conditions.

They must have a different idea of "improved reliabilty " to me.

I do understand that Jesmond will be an expensive depot to run and the value for selling it may be hard to resist.

I do see that Ashington could run the 43-46, which I count is 9 buses running at a time, with every X21/22 doing one round trip from each arrival in Haymarket. If needed the 43s at Morpeth could even work in with the 35 if need be. Yes there will be some empty running but there is some from Jesmond to Cramlington now, Ashington is probably no further. They would have to abandon any attempt at branding.

There is scope for the X services from Blyth to do something similar but it looks more complicated to get the 50s service into this. The 685 is out of the question because it must be maximum driving hours just doing Newcastle to Carlisle and back. It might make sense for Stagecoach to take this as they have the western end anyway. Don't see what Arriva could take in exchange though except perhaps around Stockton. I guess the 306 could work from Blyth, interworked at the Newcastle end with the 308. But at the moment 306 is mainly Pulsars while 308 is mainly deckers.

 

[Robertj21a]

I do understand that Jesmond will be an expensive depot to run and the value for selling it may be hard to resist.

I do see that Ashington could run the 43-46, which I count is 9 buses running at a time, with every X21/22 doing one round trip from each arrival in Haymarket. If needed the 43s at Morpeth could even work in with the 35 if need be. Yes there will be some empty running but there is some from Jesmond to Cramlington now, Ashington is probably no further. They would have to abandon any attempt at branding.

There is scope for the X services from Blyth to do something similar but it looks more complicated to get the 50s service into this. The 685 is out of the question because it must be maximum driving hours just doing Newcastle to Carlisle and back. It might make sense for Stagecoach to take this as they have the western end anyway. Don't see what Arriva could take in exchange though except perhaps around Stockton. I guess the 306 could work from Blyth, interworked at the Newcastle end with the 308. But at the moment 306 is mainly Pulsars while 308 is mainly deckers.

I thought Arriva had already sold Jesmond a while ago and was now on a lease ?

 

[Andy Pacer]

I thought Arriva had already sold Jesmond a while ago and was now on a lease ?

I was under the impression the closure, when first mooted a few months ago, was down to a compulsory purchase on the site but perhaps I'm misinformed.

 

[Tetchytyke]

The Jesmond site is prime real estate, I'm amazed it's lasted as long as it has. But I'm not buying the "cost of land" excuse, east Newcastle is full of unused industrial land.

Most of the stuff can be run from Blyth without too much dead running for the buses, Arriva have very little "local" stuff in Newcastle these days. A dead run from Whitley Bay or Cramlington back to Jesmond isn't much different to a dead run to Blyth. Even the 50s finish the day in Killingworth or Shiremoor and from there it's a short blast up the A19.

Swapping drivers through the day, that'll be more interesting.

As others have said, the 685 is the big one and, to be quite honest, leaving that to Stagecoach Cumberland would be no bad thing these days

 

[Simon75]

I was under impression Jesmond was a listed building?

Where is Walkergate ?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I was under impression Jesmond was a listed building?

Where is Walkergate ?

It is listed, as was the Arriva depot in Southgates in Leicester

Walkergate is off Shields Road past Byker.