Does anybody know what the situation is regarding drivers' hours regulation for RRB these days? I'm long out of touch, but when UK North operated a huge amount of RRB work during the Stockport blockade in the summer of 2004, their buses went to get the tacho's calibrated as they had been told they would be required to use them. However, I had driven a pre-planned RRB with First Calderline without tacho use about a decade earlier.
If they are required, you can forget urban buses and (more importantly) their drivers - the hours regulations for tachograph operations are considerably stricter than service work and the two do not mix well.
If it's pre-planned, it can be operated as a "scheduled" service, so under 50km can operate on domestic rules. Over 50km requires adherence to EU hours rules and use of tachographs. As you correctly point out, this is also a significant factor to availability issues.
I believe there used to be some sort of rule that allowed scheduled services over 50km to operate without a tachograph - so long as they still complied with EU hours rules; I think drivers had to carry some sort of evidence of compliance with them - a copy of their rota or something like that, but this was some years before I held a PCV licence so, I'm not 100% certain. IIRC, it was the removal of this relaxation that led to a number of long distance bus services being split into smaller chunks.
Service bus operations are at their absolute minimum on a Sunday. Stagecoach, First, Arriva and Go Ahead will have vehicles sat around in depots all around the country. Accessible coaches perhaps not, but certainly accessible buses.
This part is correct. Note that, as per the above, the vast majority of these won't be fitted with tachographs, however. That's only the start though...
London in particular will have a couple of thousand vehicles sat around doing nothing on a Sunday (the total fleet is apparently nearly 9,000), and driving them up to Manchester would only take four to five hours.
Google maps is currently suggesting in excess of 4 hours to drive a car from London to Manchester. AFAIK, London buses have speed limiters fitted which restrict them to 30 or 40mph. That's going to make the journey
much longer - it's going to require a break and probably additional drivers.
And bus driver wages in London aren't high, so if you offered drivers quad or five times time and two nights in a reasonable hotel while they do it you're going to get plenty of takers.
AFAIK a London bus drivers pay is roughly equivalent to that of a Northern conductor. Fair enough, there is a difference in the cost of living, but if throwing money at the situation is the answer, surely that would be the solution to getting conductors working Sundays in the first place? Believe it or not, bus drivers also like having days off to relax and/or spend time with friends and family - there's not likely to be a huge crowd of drivers volunteering to give up a whole weekend.
Every man has his price. If the price being offered doesn't result in anyone signing up, increase it until it does. Northern are saving a fortune not operating the trains - given the difference between bus and rail wages the bus drivers could be being offered quad time or even more - are they?
If they've got the money to throw at quad time, hotel costs etc, they've got the money to solve the problem properly.
It is fantasy to suggest Network Rail has contracted every spare accessible bus and coach on a Sunday.
Agreed, but see the above. Vehicles isn't the issue. Driver availability is. Even if you had drivers who did want to do it, it would cause absolute chaos with scheduling in a regular bus company (not to mention ensuring drivers knew the route etc as well). Even at a smaller bus/coach company, you'd ideally want a couple of weeks notice to be able to plan driver coverage properly around existing work.
If you're willing to get on the phone to every taxi operation in the country and pay as much as is asked, the number of available taxis is effectively infinite.
Again, if they've got that kind of money, they've got the money to solve the root cause.
It simply is not good enough.
Agreed. Although the lack of replacement bus services is not the real issue
