(30 Sep 2022, 7:57 pm)Unber43 wrote GMB Union has announced the dates of the Sunderland bus strike after talks broke down, almost 200 Stagecoach Bus Drivers will walk out, from 00:01 on Tuesday 11th October till Saturday 15th October. 

"Stagecoach has plenty of money but are refusing to invest in the workers - or in Sunderland's bus fleet which is in a shocking state"

(30 Sep 2022, 8:31 pm)Michael wrote Gonna be fun trying to get to and from work.

I'm hoping they'll be some sort of service though.. even if limited.


Wonder when they'll be putting information on the Stagecoach site soon...

(30 Sep 2022, 9:14 pm)Unber43 wrote How many drivers are based at Wheatsheaf?

(30 Sep 2022, 7:57 pm)Unber43 wrote GMB Union has announced the dates of the Sunderland bus strike after talks broke down, almost 200 Stagecoach Bus Drivers will walk out, from 00:01 on Tuesday 11th October till Saturday 15th October. 

"Stagecoach has plenty of money but are refusing to invest in the workers - or in Sunderland's bus fleet which is in a shocking state"

(01 Oct 2022, 2:53 pm)col87 wrote That’s not a shocking state they have gas buses and everything had investment over the last 10 years it actually Hartlepool which is shocking and has no investment.

(01 Oct 2022, 9:20 pm)Economic505 wrote I live in Hartlepool but from Sunderland. Hartlepool only has 5 services excluding the 36. Of course they not going to get the investment. Not saying that’s correct, but we have to be realistic.

(01 Oct 2022, 10:16 pm)col87 wrote There’s only 5 services because Stagecoach cut everything down to the bone. Go back 20 years they was the 1 1A 2 2A 3 3A 4 5 6 7 7A 8 9 12 14 15 20 502 503 505 555 516 517 527 X9 980. Added to that was the summer 401 and 820 821 822 823 824 825 826 827 828 829 830 831 school services.  So yeah could say losing the supported services wasn’t their fault but they still cut a number of commercial services.    Back on the subject though and investment is desperately needed half the fleet has problems of some sort and getting cast offs from elsewhere don’t exactly help much.

(02 Oct 2022, 9:10 am)F114TML wrote Ask most drivers at Sunderland what the worst vehicle in the fleet is and you'll likely get one of two answers - the training bus, or the open toppers.

Yes we have gas buses but we have a large fleet of MAN E200s which are absolute heaps, and we've had no new-build buses since the gas buses - thats what they mean by a lack of investment. Everything's still rolls royces compared to Arriva or GNE's fleet but it's not exactly a high bar.

IIRC there's about 220-230 drivers at Sunderland. They're apparently traininv up managers from other depots to run the routes so I think they'll try to cobble together a Sunday service. Will see if they can do it for 5 days though...

(02 Oct 2022, 10:40 am)F114TML wrote Maybe I should specify I was on about Arriva Durham, however there are plenty of ex-GNE drivers I've spoken to who much prefer Stagecoach's fleet.

GNE seem to have horrific reliability problems, because they only maintain buses when they explode.

Again, I am speaking only for Sunderland though.

(02 Oct 2022, 9:21 am)Storx wrote Not sure what your basing that on mind, Stagecoach have by far the worst fleet out the 3 imo in the North East especially taking in account how much money they make.

(02 Oct 2022, 10:40 am)F114TML wrote Maybe I should specify I was on about Arriva Durham, however there are plenty of ex-GNE drivers I've spoken to who much prefer Stagecoach's fleet.

GNE seem to have horrific reliability problems, because they only maintain buses when they explode.

Again, I am speaking only for Sunderland though.

(02 Oct 2022, 11:11 am)Unber43 wrote Wonder what particular buses GNE Drivers don't like.

Just thinking of Deptford I know the X20/65 were particularly bad for breaking down especially the latter.

(02 Oct 2022, 10:49 am)cbma06 wrote Arriva Durham got new buses after stagecoach Sunderland got there new gas buses. I wonder how much government funding there got for the gas buses for the first batch, as the second batch was the leftovers of what was left in the pot.

(02 Oct 2022, 11:32 am)F114TML wrote Pretty much all the ones at Deptford (note the amount of times I say 'apparently' here; I have no first hand experience of driving a GNE bus). Apparently StreetLites in general (not just GNE examples which actually appear to be in much better condition than Arriva's) are not pleasant to drive; noisy and heavy steering (and have a fancy for breaking down it seems), some of the Ciaros are falling apart (I was on one last week and the front panel that houses the clock and interior mirror was just about holding on - the clock was working though), and on some of the Versas, the turning circle is apparently horrific. One of them did say the Yutong's are nice to drive though. Probably because they're new.

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Compare those StreetLites (which I think is what you refer to) to the gas buses though. From nearly new the SLs have felt like they were tied together with string. I'm not going to sit here and say the gas buses are perfect - they aren't and some definitely show their age, and let's be honest a lot of the rest of the fleet is a bit meh at best, however from my own experience and speaking to others, SC Sunderland has a better fleet than GNE Deptford and Arriva Durham, even if GNE and Arriva have higher spec buses.

(02 Oct 2022, 12:02 pm)Adrian wrote What have drivers preferred buses, or the fleet at specific depots, got to do with a Stagecoach Sunderland strike?

(02 Oct 2022, 2:57 pm)MurdnunoC wrote GCT have the youngest fleet in the North East and you don't see their drivers out on strike.

Perhaps there's sone correlation between the state/age of the fleet and the happiness of the drivers.....LOL.