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If a Coach breaks down

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Schnellzug

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Good morning, everybody.
The other morning, i noticed an NX coach outside Dorchester South Station, and it seemed a bit forlorn, sitting with the engine off and some rather bored looking passengers aboard. The reason for this, it soon became apparent, was probably related to a puddle of oil underneath it. What i've often wondered is, in such a situation where a Coach breaks down miles from base, what arrangements do they have to obtain a replacement? In this case they could hardly wait for another one to be sent down from base, which in this case was Runcorn. Do they have arrangements with the local NX contractor (which would still mean sending one from Bournemouth)? Could they hire one from a local coach company if there was nothing else that could get there for hours?
 
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Failed Unit

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Good morning, everybody.
The other morning, i noticed an NX coach outside Dorchester South Station, and it seemed a bit forlorn, sitting with the engine off and some rather bored looking passengers aboard. The reason for this, it soon became apparent, was probably related to a puddle of oil underneath it. What i've often wondered is, in such a situation where a Coach breaks down miles from base, what arrangements do they have to obtain a replacement? In this case they could hardly wait for another one to be sent down from base, which in this case was Runcorn. Do they have arrangements with the local NX contractor (which would still mean sending one from Bournemouth)? Could they hire one from a local coach company if there was nothing else that could get there for hours?

This is going back some years, but Lincoln City transport used on of thier own coaches to replace a national express breakdown. I suspect as they have many local operators they will just phone up the nearest. The problem is still of course availability of coach and driver, which is a big problem at school run times.
 

gordonthemoron

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I was on an NX coach (from NCL to LDS) which broke down outside, NX eventually sent a replacement from Newcastle but we were about 90 mins late into Leeds. That was 1979

Recently I was on a coach in Turkey which either had broken down, or more likely was short of a driver at Adana Otogar, conductor got us onto another company's coach and we were only 30 mins late into Mersin
 

anthony263

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Since it was a national express service I have seen other national express coaches who have got room onboard stop to pick up the passengers even if the coach is operator by another operator.

I do think they can get re-inbursed by National express. I heard of Natioanl express scrabbling a spare coach from Victoria coach station to go rescue stranded national express passengers before now near Heathrow Airport.


In fact I have also see the opposite where a national express coach has stopped to pick up local bus passengers. This happened a few weeks ago near the Heath Hospital in Cardiff when one of Newport buses Scannia's caught fire while working on service X30 from Newport.
 

anthony263

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Ouch. Which one, and will it be put back on the road if repairable?

Dave


I will have to look through the messages I had from the welsh bus news group. I cant remember how bad it was seemed to be something to do with the air conditioning unit as someone had reported it didnt sound healthy earlier in the day and the bus was acting a bit sluggish
 

185

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In Dorchester - chances are that's Go Northern (Northern National).

Selwyns also used to do a Weymouth when I worked there. Was a bit odd there being two Liverpool services leaving within an hour of each other. Used to love doing the Weymouth, used to get there at 1830, overnight in a B&B, then back at 0915 next day :)

As for breakdowns, if I ever saw another NX broken down on the 6 or on the M1 I'd always pull over (infront of it of course, and reverse) and take as many passengers as I could.
 

bus man

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The driver will make sure the passengers are safe in line with DOT/National Express guidelines , he will then contact his or her depot who will come out to it if it is near bye like this one :

DSCN103940079.jpg



or they will contact a service provider usually the dealer network i.e. Volvo, scani etc. or the nearest national express contractor who offers roadside repairs - the bigger operators like stagecoach will contact there nearest depots who will provide roadside help and a another coach if one is available or what ever they have in the depot.


National Express control room will be contacted and they will arrange for a replacement coach if needed , one of the problems is that some breakdowns will be repaired and the coach will be on its way quickly others will be “tow in” jobs , so at the time of breakdown what will happen is not always apparent . Once a replacement vehicle as been sourced this will be brought to the scene and passengers and luggage – always the bug bear – will be transferred , we could now have another problem - drivers hours - as the original driver could have run out of hours or may need a break.


One of the problems now is that the net work is provided by lots of little operators while in days gone by it was larger operators like say sheffield united tours - national travel east who would have the spare coaches and drivers available. I remember a natioanal express coach catching fire on city road in sheffiled it took three hours for anther coach to come in the old days that would have been done in minites

As someone as said above other Non Natex coaches will stop and assist especial if on a motorway to get people to safety – usually the next service area.

Hope this information helps
 
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Statto

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In Dorchester - chances are that's Go Northern (Northern National).

Selwyns also used to do a Weymouth when I worked there. Was a bit odd there being two Liverpool services leaving within an hour of each other. Used to love doing the Weymouth, used to get there at 1830, overnight in a B&B, then back at 0915 next day :)

As for breakdowns, if I ever saw another NX broken down on the 6 or on the M1 I'd always pull over (infront of it of course, and reverse) and take as many passengers as I could.

The Go Northern NX works the Newcastle-Liverpool afternoon/evening service, parks up overnight at Norton Street Coach Station, then does the Weymouth service the next day.
 

185

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Correct Statto, you normally see them staggering across Lime St station heading to and from the Adelphi Hotel at ungodly hours, where they stay overnight. Think it's a three night duty for them away from home, used to be a good laugh going to the bingo (!) with them in Weymouth.

Sellys only had one-night away stops on NX in Edinburgh, Weymouth and Portsmouth when I was there.
 

VTPreston_Tez

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Well similarly when Platinum Buses are elsewhere with my school bus, a backup comes out which appears to be a frequent worker of Northern rail replacement routes. Also when the bus breaks down or whatnot the Northern bus comes out. (It won't be back for a while though because I've broke the roof on it so I will post on it if needed)
 

howittpie

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Many years ago I remember travelling on a Nat Ex service from Manchester to London on a GM buses Leyland National which was covering a breakdown not very comfortable to say the least.

The only other time I have had this problem was on London-Birmingham service that broke down on the M40 and we were picked up by a coach on another route.
 
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