Go North East

[MCR247]

Yeah whatever reasons they may have had (or felt they had) for not taking the bus any further, not telling the passengers and shutting them in was wrong of them

 

[Geordie driver]

Go North East passengers left on bus as driver 'quits'

Bus company Go North East says it "can't condone the actions" of the driver and is investigating.

www.bbc.co.uk

Not all heros wear capes.

 

[jkkne]

Drivers overwhelmingly vote for industrial action at Go North East

98% in favour with an 85% turnout

Go North East drivers vote for strike action over poor pay

North East bus network will see mass walkout by over a thousand workers following below-inflation offers

Unite, Britain’s leading trade union, warned today (Tuesday 12 September) that over thirteen hundred members are to strike and bring bus services in north-east England to a standstill after its members voted for industrial action over pay.

The ballot was 98 per cent in favour of industrial action with nearly an 85 per cent turn out.

Go North East drivers and engineers have been offered a derisory, below-inflation, pay offer that included cuts to terms and conditions. Additionally, administrative and clerical staff have not had any pay offer at all. Go North East can easily afford to increase pay offers given the latest accounts of its parent company, the Go-Ahead Group shows bus group profits of nearly £85million

Go North East drivers vote for strike action over poor pay

Unite, Britain’s leading trade union, warned today (Wednesday 13 September) that over thirteen hundred members are to strike and bring bus services in north-east England to a standstill after its members voted for industrial action over pay.

www.unitetheunion.org

 

[northern506]

Drivers overwhelmingly vote for industrial action at Go North East

98% in favour with an 85% turnout

Go North East drivers vote for strike action over poor pay

Unite, Britain’s leading trade union, warned today (Wednesday 13 September) that over thirteen hundred members are to strike and bring bus services in north-east England to a standstill after its members voted for industrial action over pay.

www.unitetheunion.org

Is it just me or does Nigel Featham cause these problems at all companies he ends up as managing director at?

Obviously he had the massive strike at Go North West, and then other industrial action at Arriva North East and Arriva Yorkshire.

Go North East also seems to be a mess since he has took over, the short notice journey cancellations are very high.

 

[Andyh82]

Although the Go Ahead Group makes big profits, didn’t Go North East make a significant loss due to overspending by the previous MD (Edit: Yes a 4m loss)

Hence all the recent service reductions, depot closures, cut backs on various ‘nice to haves’


This article says staff were offered 9%, plus undisclosed changes to terms and conditions of course https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/go-north-east-pay-deal

 

[jkkne]

Although the Go Ahead Group makes big profits, didn’t Go North East make a significant loss due to overspending by the previous MD (Edit: Yes a 4m loss)

Hence all the recent service reductions, depot closures, cut backs on various ‘nice to haves’


This article says staff were offered 9%, plus undisclosed changes to terms and conditions of course https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/go-north-east-pay-deal

It seems to the the terms and conditions that are the stickler.

But yes, gne are a loss maker. Giljbert wasted a stack of cash and featham is running it at a distance and cutting to the bone. Perhaps for a sale?

That Ben Maxfield is a walking PR disaster mind, stinks of over promotion

 

[M803UYA]

Is it just me or does Nigel Featham cause these problems at all companies he ends up as managing director at?

Obviously he had the massive strike at Go North West, and then other industrial action at Arriva North East and Arriva Yorkshire.

Go North East also seems to be a mess since he has took over, the short notice journey cancellations are very high.

Maybe he does as directed, very well.

 

[bobslack1982]

I’ve had cause to use their service 8 or 9 times this year and 5 times the bus was late, and twice it was cancelled without notice on their website. It’s a shockingly bad operation.

 

[northern506]

It seems to the the terms and conditions that are the stickler.

But yes, gne are a loss maker. Giljbert wasted a stack of cash and featham is running it at a distance and cutting to the bone. Perhaps for a sale?

That Ben Maxfield is a walking PR disaster mind, stinks of over promotion

Who's Ben Maxfield? Is that the area director for GNE or something, as I assume Nigel Featham is more interested in GNW?

 

[rg177]

I live on the Coast Road corridor so I'm usually blessed with a decent service from GNE. As an operator, to me personally, they were always fine.

Their recent North Tyneside additions to the network though have started wrecking reliability. Percy Main was usually pretty good for staffing availability, but daily cancellations are now the norm. There's some interworking now too, so you'll end up with silliness like a single decker being allocated to a peak service.

I know that morale with drivers isn't exactly fantastic - I used to work with quite a few of them on RRB work and they were all lovely lads but sounded proper downtrodden.

As for the strike, I'll be walking an extra few minutes and taking Stagecoach instead. They're pretty naff, but I can imagine that the remaining Arriva services will be utter chaos considering that their reliability can be even worse than GNE.

 

[jkkne]

Who's Ben Maxfield? Is that the area director for GNE or something, as I assume Nigel Featham is more interested in GNW?

A newly appointed business director, in post just under a year, he seems to front up most of their PR disasters from the bus tipping over in County Durham to the press release on drivers pay.

The new north Tyneside routes were a huge commercial risk but all it appears to have done is destroy parts of their existing network. Nearly 88 cancellations tomorrow and that’s not including the dozens they don’t announce

 

[rg177]

A newly appointed business director, in post just under a year, he seems to front up most of their PR disasters from the bus tipping over in County Durham to the press release on drivers pay.

The new north Tyneside routes were a huge commercial risk but all it appears to have done is destroy parts of their existing network. Nearly 88 cancellations tomorrow and that’s not including the dozens they don’t announce

Tomorrow the last bus from Newcastle down the Coast Road is binned. At 23:45, suffice to say, your alternative options are non-existent.

Doubtless, south of the river, this is fairly common already...

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

It seems to the the terms and conditions that are the stickler.

But yes, gne are a loss maker. Giljbert wasted a stack of cash and featham is running it at a distance and cutting to the bone. Perhaps for a sale?

That Ben Maxfield is a walking PR disaster mind, stinks of over promotion

Preparation for a sale...

Perhaps more prosaically is that Martijn Gilbert spent a bit too much time indulging in enthusiast friendly stuff (like new liveries that weren't really needed, turfing out a Routemaster on the 21, resurrecting old operator names on coaches etc) and no small amount of (self) promotion like the Voltra video, and not enough time on focussing on service delivery etc? Aside from X-Lines, not really certain what benefits he brought.

Don't know much of Ben Maxfield but in respect of Nigel Featham, he's had to sort out long standing issues in Manchester that First hadn't faced into, and I'd say he's been the best Arriva North East MD. He's now got to sort out the North East post-Gilbert issues. The closure of Chester le Street will prove to be one of the worst decisions; yes, exit Picktree Lane as it was old and expensive but retain some sort of CLS base.

As for the expanded North Tyneside operations, I guess that they (like Stagecoach) have been keen to seize on Arriva's exit from those routes.

 

[Simon75]

Preparation for a sale...

Perhaps more prosaically is that Martijn Gilbert spent a bit too much time indulging in enthusiast friendly stuff (like new liveries that weren't really needed, turfing out a Routemaster on the 21, resurrecting old operator names on coaches etc) and no small amount of (self) promotion like the Voltra video, and not enough time on focussing on service delivery etc? Aside from X-Lines, not really certain what benefits he brought.

Don't know much of Ben Maxfield but in respect of Nigel Featham, he's had to sort out long standing issues in Manchester that First hadn't faced into, and I'd say he's been the best Arriva North East MD. He's now got to sort out the North East post-Gilbert issues. The closure of Chester le Street will prove to be one of the worst decisions; yes, exit Picktree Lane as it was old and expensive but retain some sort of CLS base.

As for the expanded North Tyneside operations, I guess that they (like Stagecoach) have been keen to seize on Arriva's exit from those routes.

CLS base ?

 

[DunsBus]

CLS base ?

CLS - Chester-le-Street.

 

[GCH100]

There was a suggestion I read some time ago that Go North East was considering closing a second base after Chester-le-Street, is that still the case?

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

CLS base ?

You didn't need to go too far back

The closure of Chester le Street will prove to be one of the worst decisions; yes, exit Picktree Lane as it was old and expensive but retain some sort of CLS base

 

[Simon75]

You didn't need to go too far back

My apologies, missed that

 

[Megafuss]

There was a suggestion I read some time ago that Go North East was considering closing a second base after Chester-le-Street, is that still the case?

All I will say is It's just as well one depot now has more work with the Arriva retrenchment in North Tyneside.

 

[Tetchytyke]

didn’t Go North East make a significant loss due to overspending by the previous MD

I’d take that with a very large pinch of salt, given (IIRC) the “admin costs” and “finance costs” that went upstream to the parent company exceeded the paper loss.

If a parent wants a subsidiary to lose money, it’s the easiest thing in the world to achieve a paper loss. Arriva have been doing it for years.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

I’d take that with a very large pinch of salt, given (IIRC) the “admin costs” and “finance costs” that went upstream to the parent company exceeded the paper loss.

If a parent wants a subsidiary to lose money, it’s the easiest thing in the world to achieve a paper loss. Arriva have been doing it for years.

Although the Go Ahead Group makes big profits, didn’t Go North East make a significant loss due to overspending by the previous MD (Edit: Yes a 4m loss)

Hence all the recent service reductions, depot closures, cut backs on various ‘nice to haves’


This article says staff were offered 9%, plus undisclosed changes to terms and conditions of course https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/go-north-east-pay-deal

If you look at the published accounts, there is little change to the costs. Passenger revenue is up on 2021 but overall income is down as Covid support Grant has been slashed. That's a large part of the problem.

The other part is that they have written off 3m in goodwill from the balance sheet (that relates to acquisitions).

Quite simply, costs are outstripping revenue so hence why the axe has been wielded. Some of the indulgences of the previous MD are easy to remove or were one offs but there's much to sort out.

 

[GCH100]

I am sorry that all this has happened to this operator as it always prior to the last few years looked like a well run operation.

I know that one of the issues is like for a lot of other transport operators at the moment and that is the decline of town centres and that is where much revenue would have come from. This will be an issue for bus operators as town centres fall back further, simply not as many people are traveling into town centres.

In terms of Chester-le-Street depot, one of the reasons that was killed off was the fact that Go Ahead was on a pattern of building new regional centres and closing others, with the building of a new depot at Consett that probably didn't help matters. A smaller depot should probably have been established in this area for routes in that area and further South in County Durham. GoAhead though have closed more depots than any other ex NBC fleet in the last 25 years or so.

 

[Rich McLean]

Stagecoach are paying a lot more ph than GNE are, hence drivers leaving and heading for Stagecoach depots in Slatyford, Wallsend and Sunderland.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Stagecoach are paying a lot more ph than GNE are, hence drivers leaving and heading for Stagecoach depots in Slatyford, Wallsend and Sunderland.

Stagecoach have a depot in Wallsend?

 

[rg177]

Stagecoach have a depot in Wallsend?

Probably referring to Walkergate. Which is indeed in Newcastle rather than North Tyneside.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Probably referring to Walkergate. Which is indeed in Newcastle rather than North Tyneside.

Thought I may have missed something for a while there.

 

[jkkne]

Unite confirm two full weeks of strikes in September and October

Go North East drivers announce dates for strike action

Go North East bus drivers will walk out in two, seven-day strikes beginning later this month, Unite the union announced today (18 September).

www.unitetheunion.org

Go North East bus drivers will walk out in two, seven-day strikes beginning later this month, Unite the union announced today (18 September).

Drivers have been forced to take to the picket line following the failure of Go North East to come back to the negotiating table with an improved offer. This is despite the latest accounts of its parent company, the Go-Ahead Group shows bus group profits of nearly £85million.

Depots that will be affected by any industrial action are: Consett, Gateshead, Hexham, Percy Main (North Shields), Sunderland and Washington.

Strikes will take place on the following dates:

• Saturday 30th September 2023 to Friday 6th October 2023 (inclusive)
• Saturday 14th October 2023 to Friday 20th October 2023 (inclusive)

Unite has also warned that further action may be notified in due course if a settlement that members can accept isn’t put forward.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Go North East need to take a long hard look at themselves and how appallingly they’ve treated their workforce.”

“Our members will have the full support of their union as they take to the picket line in their fight for a fair pay deal.”

Unite regional officer Dave Telford added: “Unite has a laser-like focus on the jobs, pay and conditions of its members – we will use every resource at our disposal to bring victory to the workers.”

 

[vla50]

Will any more buses be due in to replace the older B7 Geminis/Omnidekkas/Presidents that are on loan? The MX58s from Manchester?

 

[jkkne]

Well we’re hours away from the strike and with the added bonus of the rail strike, huge swathes of Tyneside, Northumberland and County Durham are left with no public transport at all.

GNE have confirmed only school buses will operate next week (where possible) but a lot of the most vulnerable and elderly will basically be forced back into lockdown thanks to the sheer incompetence of GNE enthusiast led management team

 

[Mwanesh]

Have listened to Unite the strike is going to kill off some depots. They are comparing wages in different parts of the country.