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Transdev Blazefield

61653 HTAFC

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Another planet...
I haven't had any big issues with Team Pennine, though the route I use most is the D1: which seems to be a priority what with the marketing blitz. Makes a change this route not being the "ginger stepchild" as it was under Tracky; Stagecoach; Centrebus Holdings/Huddersfield Bus Company; and latterly Tiger.
To be fair, it wasn't really last in the pecking order for Tiger, but the 231/232 to Wakefield seemed to be the priority when things went awry.
Ironically Arriva have taken on the 231/232 and seem to be doing well, they've given it Sapphire branding (albeit no frequency increase)- just in time for things properly opening up... oh, and the lack of an off-peak rail service between Huddersfield and Wakefield helps too.
 
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northernchris

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The problem for Transdev is then to be seen pumping out PR fluff whilst not advising of genuine issues. Don't know if they have an external firm providing the PR tweets but it's a case of not reading the room.

This is indeed the big problem, certainly with the Keighley operations. I was in Keighley bus station earlier today and spent around 15 minutes waiting for my bus. During this time they were 3 separate boards on the local services cancelled along with some general late running of other services. I was stood near to the travel centre where they were 2 members of staff behind the counter and only 1 customer went in during my time spent in the queue. Whilst waiting I was checking the app and noticed that the cancelled journeys were still showing, and they were showing scheduled times on the Metro next bus pages, rather than being marked as cancelled. There were no announcements made at the bus station to advise of any disruptions, nothing on social media and even when the duty manager appeared he briefly spoke to a driver then went back in to hiding, completely ignoring the waiting passengers.

The technology exists to communicate cancelled journeys, and there were at least 3 staff members who could have access to twitter and the metro site (or even access to the PA) yet all of them chose to avoid contact with passengers. Transdev really need to address some of the culture issues they have before they criticise others, and stop pretending that all is good
 

RustySpoons

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5 Apr 2019
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752
In the past 7 days Burnley have put out 32 tweets. Of those only one advises of a missing journey on the X43. 21 are PR posts about how they like the F word, how we should be kind to drivers and staff, wear masks, etc etc. The rest are in response to passengers asking why their bus didn't show up, with the standard response of 'there's a driver shortage, check the app, have a free ticket...'

Earlier today I thought I'd give the bus a go as I had a meeting in town, and it'd work out cheaper than parking. Checked the app and the journey I was going to take wasn't showing with a 'live' departure time. As it's a 15 minute walk from my house to the bus stop I didn't want to risk it so ended up driving. Frustratingly I passed the bus as I drove into town.

Tonight I was heading into town for a drink and to make the most of the £1 evening fare, checked the app, the bus was showing a 'live' departure time. Set off walking to the stop, got there and checked the app and there was just a scheduled departure time. Bus wasn't showing as tracking either. Even more frustrating as this was the last bus into town for the day.

Not good enough.
 

northern506

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17 May 2020
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The North
In the past 7 days Burnley have put out 32 tweets. Of those only one advises of a missing journey on the X43. 21 are PR posts about how they like the F word, how we should be kind to drivers and staff, wear masks, etc etc. The rest are in response to passengers asking why their bus didn't show up, with the standard response of 'there's a driver shortage, check the app, have a free ticket...'

Earlier today I thought I'd give the bus a go as I had a meeting in town, and it'd work out cheaper than parking. Checked the app and the journey I was going to take wasn't showing with a 'live' departure time. As it's a 15 minute walk from my house to the bus stop I didn't want to risk it so ended up driving. Frustratingly I passed the bus as I drove into town.

Tonight I was heading into town for a drink and to make the most of the £1 evening fare, checked the app, the bus was showing a 'live' departure time. Set off walking to the stop, got there and checked the app and there was just a scheduled departure time. Bus wasn't showing as tracking either. Even more frustrating as this was the last bus into town for the day.

Not good enough.

I agree with you - I can understand the issues around staff shortages, however I've used Transdev and Go North East recently and noticed two key differences.

Firstly, Go North East post a daily list of scheduled journey cancellations - while it's not ideal to have cancelled journeys, it's certainly ideal to know about them beforehand so you can plan in advance. Nothing of the sort from Transdev.

Secondly, the customer service offered by Go North East is far superior. With Transdev is feels like it's done on the side. With Go North East they offer a live chat function, and generally always respond to tweets good or bad with a useful response. They also post journey updates out of hours. Again, nothing of the sorts from Transdev. The customer service is nearly as bad as Arriva, and that says something. Ironic considering one of their greatest allies 'Best Impressions' is always slating Arriva!

While in the past I would have relatively high confidence using Transdev, now I would not feel confident using Transdev on an evening with last buses for example, despite the £1 it would be less of a risk to get a taxi, especially after my recent experiences with them in Keighley. And if I did have a problem, I would not expect a resolution, compared to Go North East for example. They've gone way down in my estimations.
 

Ken H

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It takes years to build a public transport habit. A couple of long waits in the rain and that's all undone.
 

Andyh82

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19 May 2014
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I paid a visit to Burnley today and it looks like there were numerous trips not operating there as well. At any one time there was probably at least half a dozen buses parked up in the bus station showing Not in Service (affecting Mainline, Witch Way, Rosso and Ribble Country at various times) whereas on a Saturday you’d maybe get normally 1 bus parked as spare.

Regarding the communications, I get the feeling it’s completely out of the management’s comfort zone and they don’t know what to do. They haven’t had a situation before where they can’t gloss over something with a positive PR spin. Even in the first lockdown when they were running a key worker timetable, they we able to concentrate on positive PR - clapping (and honking) on a Thursday night, branding buses with ‘I heart NHS’, introducing the Captain Sir Tom Moore bus in Keighley etc
 

RustySpoons

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5 Apr 2019
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752
The last X43 night bus at 3am didn't run this morning leaving a lot of stranded passengers. Absolutely zero attempt to try and warn passengers.
 

Andyh82

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The last X43 night bus at 3am didn't run this morning leaving a lot of stranded passengers. Absolutely zero attempt to try and warn passengers.
You have to wonder why they reintroduced extra services such as the late night weekend buses when there is a driver shortage.
 

LAIRA

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25 Oct 2014
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The last X43 night bus at 3am didn't run this morning leaving a lot of stranded passengers. Absolutely zero attempt to try and warn passengers.
You should notify the Traffic Commisioner as the last bus should ALWAYS run,
 

RELL6L

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19 May 2014
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The last X43 night bus at 3am didn't run this morning leaving a lot of stranded passengers. Absolutely zero attempt to try and warn passengers.
That is utterly unacceptable. Not like it broke down on the way into the city, the whole board was missing for most of the day including the 1am departure from Manchester. They are allowing their good reputation to disappear in front of their eyes.
It takes years to build a public transport habit. A couple of long waits in the rain and that's all undone.
Couldn’t agree more. Probably no point in bothering with the 3am next week, market destroyed!

We all understand the companies have staffing issues, it’s the lack of information and notice that’s so scandalous. Yes I would have checked BusTimes for the previous journey and the incoming but you can’t expect nightclubbers to do that!
 
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208
Mr Hornby just posted a photo of demo E-Citaro MB21 BUS (albeit the front) to his instagram story. The interesting thing is that it looks to be in Keighley Green colours.
 

gledhill56

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12 Nov 2007
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89
It’s the same vehicle that they had in Harrogate a couple of months back, guess they’ve just put a new livery on it for COP26
 

Andyh82

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I notice the Arriva North West buses that are on loan to Team Pennine don’t carry any Transdev identification, not even a ‘On hire to…’ paper in the window. I thought displaying one of those was a legal requirement?
 

Goldfish62

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I notice the Arriva North West buses that are on loan to Team Pennine don’t carry any Transdev identification, not even a ‘On hire to…’ paper in the window. I thought displaying one of those was a legal requirement?
No, that hasn't been a legal requirement for many years, although judging by its sometimes appearance some operators clearly think it still is!
 

RELL6L

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I have had another look on BusTimes to see how Team Pennine are doing. All caveats about the accuracy of BusTimes remain.

The tendered rural routes generally look better than recently, all board appear to be running on everything except one 563 is missing and no 524 running. However there is a Solo, 169, which has been running up and down the 514 all day today - showing as one long repetitive journey. The website still says South Pennine are running this!

Not so good on the urban routes. Only two of three boards on the 20/21 running and very little on Huddersfield routes 319 & 360 - no 319s at all this morning until about 12.30, only one 360.

I wonder if the situation isn't partly vehicle related. If they were short of drivers then you'd expect to see some buses parked up while a drive has a relief or if the relief driver is missing. But it doesn't seem to work like that, vehicles out are out non-stop for the full day. There do appear to be several vehicles off the road, for example today none of the three rebranded X1 Tempos 1405-7 are out.

I keep looking for some acknowledgement on the Team Pennine website - better still an action plan - but nothing!
 

RustySpoons

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5 Apr 2019
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752
Considering the state of things at the moment it probably isn't the best time to brag about how Amazing the company is to passengers who are consistently being let down, but it's nomination time for the Customer Choice award at the annual Amazing Awards.

https://www.transdevbus.co.uk/_/AmazingAwards

The Amazing Awards are Transdev’s way of recognising and rewarding our best people.

We have a special award that we need your input for, we call it Customer’s Choice. Tell us about someone from our company who’s really impressed you!
 

TheGrandWazoo

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Considering the state of things at the moment it probably isn't the best time to brag about how Amazing the company is to passengers who are consistently being let down, but it's nomination time for the Customer Choice award at the annual Amazing Awards.

https://www.transdevbus.co.uk/_/AmazingAwards
This is what I mean by "not reading the room".

I have sympathy for every operator out there who is struggling to run a semblance of their service, and have had more missed journeys in recent times than I've had for years. Also, most operators are as bad if not worse than Transdev for communicating to their customers.

However, it does seem more than bizarre that you continue to pump out PR stuff like this when even a bit of mea culpa on cancellations would be appreciated.

In darkened bedrooms across the North, there will be equal numbers of partisans from either side either wiping their tears at their beloved Transdev's failings, or rubbing their hands at the Amazing Ammunition that they've been handed. As ever, the truth is somewhere in between.
 

SCH117X

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27 Nov 2015
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I have had another look on BusTimes to see how Team Pennine are doing. All caveats about the accuracy of BusTimes remain.
However there is a Solo, 169, which has been running up and down the 514 all day today - showing as one long repetitive journey. The website still says South Pennine are running this!
Could be South Pennine are using a ticket machine supplied to them that was last fitted to 169.
 

Seehof

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1 Sep 2019
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Yorkshire
I was in Knaresborough yesterday. Am I correct in thinking some of the “1” series of routes should be EV operated? If so there were none running at lunch time - what has happened to them? Thanks
 

RustySpoons

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5 Apr 2019
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The new Mellors for Pennine aren't too far away now. At least two have already been delivered and branded as Calder Country, but only one is branded as below...

@alextransdev Twitter
New bus bearing high impact message **loading**. And we’re well on the way to renewing or refurbishing 1 in 2 buses @TeamPennine since the start of our new company.

Screenshot 2021-11-04 at 09.38.21.png

I wonder if it'll get a roasting off the #SaveOurWindows brigade?

I believe they're the same spec as the Ribble Country/Little Hotlines in Lancashire. Not sure when they're entering service as a launch date hasn't been given yet other than 'November', but they should hopefully bring some decent reliability improvements to the fleet.
 

Ancelljb

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The new Mellors for Pennine aren't too far away now. At least two have already been delivered and branded as Calder Country, but only one is branded as below...

@alextransdev Twitter


View attachment 105165

I wonder if it'll get a roasting off the #SaveOurWindows brigade?

I believe they're the same spec as the Ribble Country/Little Hotlines in Lancashire. Not sure when they're entering service as a launch date hasn't been given yet other than 'November', but they should hopefully bring some decent reliability improvements to the fleet.
One has entered service this morning on the 563, vehicle 89 (WV71 ZTT)
 
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duncombec

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3 Sep 2014
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775
I wonder if it'll get a roasting off the #SaveOurWindows brigade?
Another tweet posted on October 31st (https://twitter.com/alextransdev/status/1454757508455731202/photo/1) shows what I presume to be the offside, without contravision across the windows.

By my estimate that will be a single pair of seats directly affected by the band across the windows, which should be easy to avoid on a 27 seat vehicle. I'd also imagine they would be short-term 'launch' vinyls - it wouldn't be very good for them to still be running around with brand-new on the side when they are a year old!

I know the point you are making, but the amount of contravision here seems minor in comparison to that often complained about - it doesn't look much thicker than the front-window pillar on a Streetdeck!
 

SCH117X

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Thought the 1's are refurbished Eclipses? The Electrics are on the 2/3/6 routes normally, IIRC.
The '1's are expected to go electric when the Eclipses are replaced. Yes the Volvo 7900Es work the Harrogate town services.
 

RustySpoons

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Believe the 1's and the Shuttle at Keighley are going to be replaced with the same 'electric' order.
 
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Believe the 1's and the Shuttle at Keighley are going to be replaced with the same 'electric' order.
I think the most likely order will be for Electirc E200 MMCs, but E-Citaros could be a possibility. Personally I would love to see a new Scania Fencer on trial at Keighley.
 

Deerfold

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Not sure if there's vehicle problems or there's just lots of Shuttles spare with the service reductions, but there's been at least one Shuttle vehicle on the 62 yesterday and today.
 

RustySpoons

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5 Apr 2019
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752
Thinking further into the future, I wonder what will replace the B10s on Burnley locals when the time comes? It could be said that the B7s that'll be displaced at Harrogate when their new electrics arrive could take their place, but they'll still be too big and just as unsuitable for town work. They'd be more suited over at Blackburn to replace their remaining B10s. Is there enough of a network left to justify a brand new fleet, or could the Keighley Solo's find their way over the hills when they're replaced?
 

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