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cancelled busses
In the past few days my children have had a great deal of trouble getting to and from school. The main routes involved are 349 and 350. Buses appear to have been cancelled meaning they have had to wait up to 40min and/or walk and have been late for school. They have been told that several buses have been cancelled in order to send buses to Sydney as many Sydney buses have been found to be faulty. I hope this is not true (however I suspect it is true). I realise that this is not strictly related to the proposed network review, however I think it is relevant to comment on the priorities of Newcastle buses.
Comment 1 14 Dec 2007, 10:14 AM
ATTENTION ALL
Gee, don't people look for other threads that may cover this anymore, you'll have to look for my answer, as I'm not going to repeat it.
One more time, this is not about the bus reviews. If you find your bus cancelled, ring the depot/s or phone 13-1500. Kath, our route IS timetabled for a frequency of 60 or more minutes.
Comment 1.1 15 Dec 2007, 10:03 AM
Thank you NFlyer for clarifying my issues if you could post another comment I might be able to understand just what you are saying.
Comment 2 14 Dec 2007, 1:13 PM
** NOTE REGARDING CANCELLED BUSES IN NEWCASTLE **
Okay strictly not about the bus review, but to let people know, see this link here: http://www.sydneybuses.info/news.php?id=676
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In it, it states:
QUOTE
We have had time to source more buses and are now able to run more services with only 3% of services cancelled compared to Tuesday. We have also rearranged buses to spread them more evenly between the major routes.
END QUOTE
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The source of most of the buses ARE from Newcastle Buses. That is why Newcastle has been dragged into this fiasco with some local services cancelled.
Comment 3 14 Dec 2007, 10:02 PM
I have some information that 3 of the 16 Newcastle Buses buses sent down to Sydney to help may NOT be returning to Newcatle, as they have been removed from "Newcastle's books", which suggests they will become Sydney buses.
Comment 3.1 15 Dec 2007, 12:54 PM
If you look even closer at that information, you'll see that 19 buses were sent down. Three have been permanently transferred. This means that, since the delivery of the new Volvos, 10 older buses have been permanently sent to Sydney - but we have 10 new Volvos. The fleet stands at 166, which is what we had before the new Volvos anyway - all is balanced out. Those other 16 will be coming back, from everything I've heard.
I have no problem with buses being loaned to Sydney. From what it says on the Sydney Buses website, they've been shifitng buses across every Depot to evenly spread out the void caused by the problem, so it would seem pretty unfair if Newcastle didn't do its share as well.
Comment 3.1.1 15 Dec 2007, 10:50 PM
Man, some said 20, some said 15, but the total number doesn't matter & I knew their were about 170 buses in Newcastle, ALL of the buses on loan should be coming back.
At least Sydney now knows how Newcastle feels, with less buses & less frequencies!!!
But anyway, I want to leave this site for reviews, especially waiting 20 - 30 minutes to change buses.
Comment 3.1.2 17 Dec 2007, 7:57 PM
you say you have no problem with the buses going to sydney. That's fair enough but can i ask you something?
DO YOU CATCH ANY OF THE BUSES THAT HAVE BEEN CANCELED???????
On Tuesday nobody knew that the buses had been canceled and we waited for the 350 in the morning as usual. When the bus was twenty minutes late we bagan to walk to school. After a couple of short minutes we were picked up by another friend of ours while my sister and two other mates were left at the bus stop. The 349 came which was full so more…
Comment 3.1.2.1 17 Dec 2007, 8:07 PM
And that's different to 1,000's of commuters being stranded in Sydney how? You're not the only one who's bus didn't come - there's no list of cancelled services down there either, and they have a lot more of them. I bet you lot aren't the only bunch who got wet.
Comment 3.1.2.1.1 19 Dec 2007, 5:07 PM
no you're right, we wernt the only people who got wet...
LOADS OF OTHER PEOPLE GOT WET IN NEWCASTLE TOO.
B.T.W you said that the busses were going to be replaced, when exactly will that happen? Also, how come the most used buses have been canceled? The 351 has still been comming at its usuall times yet they are almost always empty, wouldn't it make more sense if the least used buses are canceled?
Comment 3.1.2.1.1.1 20 Dec 2007, 8:25 PM
I didn't say that the Sydney loan buses were going to be replaced.
Newcastle's 26 oldest buses are gradually being replaced with new Volvos, and 10 of these have already arrived, with 10 buses sent to Sydney permanently to knock out 10 even older ones down there.
The ones on loan to Sydney are not being replaced in the short term. They will all return to Newcastle when the problems down there are fixed.
So, the loan buses and the ones being replaced are two completely separate things.
I agree with you about some of the 'most used' buses being cancelled, but after a more…
Comment 3.1.2.1.2 19 Dec 2007, 5:08 PM
no you're right, we wernt the only people who got wet...
LOADS OF OTHER PEOPLE GOT WET IN NEWCASTLE TOO.
B.T.W you said that the busses were going to be replaced, when exactly will that happen? Also, how come the most used buses have been canceled? The 351 has still been comming at its usuall times yet they are almost always empty, wouldn't it make more sense if the least used buses are canceled?
Comment 3.1.2.2 26 Dec 2007, 11:25 AM
Lily, Man3668 does more than "catch the buses".
Man3668, if the problem was reversed would Sydney send up any government buses to supplement Newcastle Buses, and what would happen if Sydney didn't get 100% of their buses back?
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As I stated before, three were sent or what I would call stolen, just like the group of buses earlier this year were Stolen from Newcastle, after McKay & her Useless state government said that NO Newcastle buses would make their home in Sydney earlier this year/end of 2006. McKay may not have been in power then, but she was "talking" on behalf of the government.
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This is not improving bus services in a "bus review", but I have a feeling that their is some hidden agenda that the public are not being told with this bus review.
Comment 3.1.2.2.1 30 Dec 2007, 11:48 PM
Three were not stolen. These three were REPLACED by new Volvos here. The fleet before Volvos: 166. Fleet after Volvos: 166. No further buses were "stolen" apart from those 10 at the start of the year as you say.
Sydney have already proven that they would send buses to Newcastle if there was a similar problem. Back in 2005, a MAN bus was spontaneously destroyed by fire at Adamstown Heights. It was IMMEDIATELY replaced by a bus sent from Sydney.
Comment 4 18 Dec 2007, 2:07 PM
i missed the 350 too!
seriously, newcastle busses shouldn't be sydney's backup bus supply. If we had to cancell the busses, why the most used routes and why are they cancelled on the times that are most used?
Comment 4.1 18 Dec 2007, 7:30 PM
"why are they cancelled on the times that are most used?"
Common sense, emosscareme.
Peak hour = most buses on the road at once, especially with school specials. This is the ONLY time when they would be short of buses, and hence would have to cancel services - it's impossible to cancel services in the off-peak since there are more than enough physical buses in the middle of the day - you just have to walk past Hamilton Depot to see them all parked in there. In the peaks, it's empty.
Comment 4.1.1 26 Dec 2007, 11:28 AM
Man3668, how many "spare buses" sitting at the two Newcastle depots while the peak hour buses were getting cancelled in Newcastle?
Comment 4.1.1.1 26 Dec 2007, 2:32 PM
None. I often pass Hamilton Depot and during peak hour, and before the buses were sent south, the yard was empty (both AM and PM) - except for a few under cover right down the back, which look to me to be mechanical workshops. I assume the same would happen at Belmont since it's a much smaller yard.
Comment 4.1.1.1.1 29 Dec 2007, 4:17 PM
My observations of the depot is that there are about 10 not in service.
In my view the depot should be empty.
The problem would seem to be the maintenance program.
If the fleet is 166 can some one tell me what the maximum number of buses on the road are and for how many minutes is this peak?
Comment 4.1.1.1.1.1 29 Dec 2007, 4:43 PM
No BF, both depots shouldn't be empty, they do need some spares just in case of break downs.
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BUT. . .
I have info that it looks like another 10 buses will also be heading for Sydney tomorrow, with possibly more to follow next week.
MAN3668, if correct do you know if ALL of the buses in these two batches will be returning, or will Sydney "steel" some Newcastle Bus buses again?
Comment 4.1.1.1.1.1.1 29 Dec 2007, 5:58 PM
They'll all be back for sure.
Comment 4.1.1.1.1.1.2 30 Dec 2007, 1:45 PM
A fleet of well maintained and properly serviced vehicles do not break down. I suggest you look at the service availability standards being set in the trucking industry as part of their maintenance contracts.
If Newcastle Buses maintenance staff can not guarentee 100% availibility for a very low milage heavy vehicle fleet then the maintenance should be privatiesd. Some truck fleet vehicles do the annual bus milage (50,000kms) in a month! Most interstate coaches do the total Newcastle bus life milage in less than 2 years with many of those vehicle being over 10 years old.
Dont forget 100% availability is only required for about 30 minutes each school day. Dont also forget all major rebuilds and refurbishments are done in Sydney with the bus not on Newcastles list.
Comment 4.1.1.1.1.1.2.1 2 Jan 2008, 7:39 PM
B/fellow, has your car ever broken down while driving?
Comment 5 29 Dec 2007, 4:25 PM
The real question is why were the buses cancelled.
My understanding is that it was a steering component fault. I would say that the issue was directly related to very poor maintenance procedures. It this is corretct then the people of Newcastle should not suffer. This poor maintenance should be part of the Newcastle buses review. BUT WE ARE NOT HAVING A REVIEW just a bus route shuffle. A quality bus service does not drive past people or let them get drenched in the rain!
Comment 5.1 29 Dec 2007, 5:06 PM
B/fellow it was something to do with the steering arm or similar and only affected one type of bus. The fault really affected only Sydney buses, although other companies removed some of their buses of the same type for a while.
The state government/State Transit (Sydney Buses) claim it wasn't/hasn't got anything to do with this vehicle recall of over 2 years ago on the top of this page: (http://dynamic.dotars.gov.au/recalls/Search_results.asp?Daterange=07/31/05)
They [State Transit] claim that that problem was fixed, but they found "another" steering problem (or similar) on the Thursday BEFORE the state government took their end of year break, yet was only released to the public on the following Monday - AFTER the state government broke up.
Comment 5.1.1 30 Dec 2007, 2:41 PM
The fault is with the management on the bus. Quality maintenance and inspection would not cause a crisis.
If the issue was a bus fault why were all the buses of a similar type in the world not taken out of service?
Clearly the maintenance staff and bus inspectors do not have the skills necessary to identify problems and manage issues.
It will be interesting to see if this major service non delivery is reported in the Annual Report statictics.
Lets have a full on enquire so that the public can be told the truth.
This issue is very important to a bus review because it involves safety, risks to the environment, passenger service, non arrivals of buses etc. It is also a very good reason to keep routes short.