Northern Rail Replacement Service

[fowler9]

Northern seem to be using a bus company today that are not bothering calling at intermediate stations between South Parkway and Lime Street. Been a good few years since this has happened but it isn't good enough.

 

[northwichcat]

I thought Arriva had the contract to run the replacement bus services with replacement operators being sourced to cover Arriva strike days. Surely Arriva should have drivers who are familiar with the local area.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Northern seem to be using a bus company today that are not bothering calling at intermediate stations between South Parkway and Lime Street. Been a good few years since this has happened but it isn't good enough.

I've never quite understood why so many bus drivers are unable to follow basic instructions. Fortunately on local bus services GPS tracking has dealt with the problem in many cases[1], but it really shouldn't have been needed.

[1] A particular last evening service in MK used to run nearly 10 minutes early most days, I'd reported it loads of times but nothing was ever done. The day GPS tracking was introduced it suddenly started running on time and has done since right up to that route being got rid of. Funny, that.

 

[northwichcat]

I've never quite understood why so many bus drivers are unable to follow basic instructions. Fortunately on local bus services GPS tracking has dealt with the problem in many cases[1], but it really shouldn't have been needed.

Hasn't solved all the problems. I complained to Merseytravel after a Cumfybus service drove past me without stopping and the next one didn't turn up, so I gave up and walked. Merseytravel said GPS tracking showed the second bus operated and ran to time. There's a parallel road around 50 yards from the road the bus should go down so I can only presume the driver went down the wrong road and the GPS system didn't pick that up.

 

[fowler9]

I thought Arriva had the contract to run the replacement bus services with replacement operators being sourced to cover Arriva strike days. Surely Arriva should have drivers who are familiar with the local area.

It was a weird weekend, Arriva operated the service on Saturday and were spot on, on Sunday other operators were brought in and it was kind of hit and miss where the buses went, some buses stopped outside West Allerton, others stopped on Brodie Avenue which is down the road and around the corner. 08/11 will be interesting, Northern, Merseyrail and Arriva are all on strike on the same day. I am on leave fortunately because it is my birthday the day before.