VERY Late running services

[Trident 4609]

9s were coming in trios and quartets earlier

There was a group of 4 WN59's in convoy about 15:40 on Lichfield Rd

[fleetline6477]

Being the families resident bus fan, it's usually me who gets texts from my sister about her bus journeys.

Tonight after being approx 20mins late, her 58 then got held up for another approx 20minutes in heavy traffic around Digbeth. Obviously with rush hour traffic and roadworks, these things can happen, but it seems her driver then told everyone to get off and board the already crowded 58 that was due after him. It seems it was his time to finish, or driving hours were up/ something similar.
I'm waiting to hear from her where this happened. Do NX have a plan in place for if and when this happens? Are there spare drivers who could have maybe taken over at Adderley Street if a drivers hours are up due to late running?

Interested to hear your thoughts @Tony

Drivers hours are a legal requirement. In the evening peak do you really think NX could have several hundred drivers on standby just in case?. As I have posted in another thread almost every AG, BC(Garrison Lane around to Bristol Road), BY & YW bus was running up to an hour late. If a driver is close to the end of a 5h30min portion or an 8h30min straight through duty it is one of those unfortunate things that he has to stop driving at the next 'convenient point' he is allowed to exceed those limits due to unforseen circumstances included unusual traffic jams until that next 'convenient point' if that happens to be his home garage with another bus going to the same destination close behind then that has to happen.  If that driver would have carried on and had an accident both the driver himself and the company would be responsible.

Tony, can you please clarify my confusion. My understanding is that a driver can only drive for 5 h 30 mins without a break of at least 30 or 45 minutes. If this is the case how can a driver do a 8h 30 min straight through duty?

[notepanel]

Being the families resident bus fan, it's usually me who gets texts from my sister about her bus journeys.

Tonight after being approx 20mins late, her 58 then got held up for another approx 20minutes in heavy traffic around Digbeth. Obviously with rush hour traffic and roadworks, these things can happen, but it seems her driver then told everyone to get off and board the already crowded 58 that was due after him. It seems it was his time to finish, or driving hours were up/ something similar.
I'm waiting to hear from her where this happened. Do NX have a plan in place for if and when this happens? Are there spare drivers who could have maybe taken over at Adderley Street if a drivers hours are up due to late running?

Interested to hear your thoughts @Tony

Drivers hours are a legal requirement. In the evening peak do you really think NX could have several hundred drivers on standby just in case?. As I have posted in another thread almost every AG, BC(Garrison Lane around to Bristol Road), BY & YW bus was running up to an hour late. If a driver is close to the end of a 5h30min portion or an 8h30min straight through duty it is one of those unfortunate things that he has to stop driving at the next 'convenient point' he is allowed to exceed those limits due to unforseen circumstances included unusual traffic jams until that next 'convenient point' if that happens to be his home garage with another bus going to the same destination close behind then that has to happen.  If that driver would have carried on and had an accident both the driver himself and the company would be responsible.

Tony, can you please clarify my confusion. My understanding is that a driver can only drive for 5 h 30 mins without a break of at least 30 or 45 minutes. If this is the case how can a driver do a 8h 30 min straight through duty?

There are two ways the break can be worked out with Domestic Regs. Either a full 30 minutes must be taken after 5h30 driving, or alternatively within an 8h30 minute duty breaks totalling 45 minutes must be taken (E.g. 3 x 15 minutes - although in theory it can be 45 x 1 minute).

[Liverpool Street]

Being the families resident bus fan, it's usually me who gets texts from my sister about her bus journeys.

Tonight after being approx 20mins late, her 58 then got held up for another approx 20minutes in heavy traffic around Digbeth. Obviously with rush hour traffic and roadworks, these things can happen, but it seems her driver then told everyone to get off and board the already crowded 58 that was due after him. It seems it was his time to finish, or driving hours were up/ something similar.
I'm waiting to hear from her where this happened. Do NX have a plan in place for if and when this happens? Are there spare drivers who could have maybe taken over at Adderley Street if a drivers hours are up due to late running?

Interested to hear your thoughts @Tony

Drivers hours are a legal requirement. In the evening peak do you really think NX could have several hundred drivers on standby just in case?. As I have posted in another thread almost every AG, BC(Garrison Lane around to Bristol Road), BY & YW bus was running up to an hour late. If a driver is close to the end of a 5h30min portion or an 8h30min straight through duty it is one of those unfortunate things that he has to stop driving at the next 'convenient point' he is allowed to exceed those limits due to unforseen circumstances included unusual traffic jams until that next 'convenient point' if that happens to be his home garage with another bus going to the same destination close behind then that has to happen.  If that driver would have carried on and had an accident both the driver himself and the company would be responsible.

Tony, can you please clarify my confusion. My understanding is that a driver can only drive for 5 h 30 mins without a break of at least 30 or 45 minutes. If this is the case how can a driver do a 8h 30 min straight through duty?

There are two ways the break can be worked out with Domestic Regs. Either a full 30 minutes must be taken after 5h30 driving, or alternatively within an 8h30 minute duty breaks totalling 45 minutes must be taken (E.g. 3 x 15 minutes - although in theory it can be 45 x 1 minute).

Oh? They still do straight through duties? I was understanding from when I was at NX they said straight throughs were now illegal!!

[Stuharris 6360]

Does driving a bus empty to or from a garage have to be done within the drivers hours??

[Tony]

Does driving a bus empty to or from a garage have to be done within the drivers hours??

Yes

When I move empty vehicles around the country if it is over 50km that has to be done under EU hours and breaks.

[Trident 4194]

141 and 241 departed halesowen at 13:23 towards merry hill, which means the 241 is 20 down

[sonic84]

The 98's were running about 15 minutes late around 1.00 today heading towards Birmingham.

[Rob H]

2137 & 2141 running together on BC58 towards Solihull seen by Land Rover, Lode Lane around 08:10/08:15 while aboard Sunny Travel V564JBH on 71E (Solihull Bound).

4948 & 4913 running together on BC957 towards Birmingham seen in Solihull around 08:20/08:25.

[John]

Fun and games on the 7 today. 6 out of the 7 daytime buses were stuck either side of an RTC at the Witton Road/Mansfield Road junction. 3 in either direction, for over an hour around midday. The buses from City were turned around first, then the 3 of us heading towards City were then turned around by reversing into a side road. By the time I got into Livery Street, 1.10 down, I was then told to leave 5 minutes early by AVL (therefore completely missing a round trip), but by the time I got to the Crossways, I was 10 down with the next 7 behind. I was then turned around there and was finally back on time then for relief. Plus I was bursting to go too!

Also, 761 on the 68 (it was on the A, stuck in front of me) was stuck too so there was no service at all on there until it was turned around

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/woman-trapped-aston-two-car-collision-8751110#rlabs=1

[Trident 4609]

1860 and a B7RLE were running together through Wednesfield on the 89 towards Wolverhampton about 18:25 this evening

[Kevin]

Birchfield road services seem like they're all screwed at the moment. Got into town 18:15 from work to find the X56 only just loading, and the queues on all 3 stops seemed horrendous so presumably hadn't been anything for a while

[Tony]

Birchfield road services seem like they're all screwed at the moment. Got into town 18:15 from work to find the X56 only just loading, and the queues on all 3 stops seemed horrendous so presumably hadn't been anything for a while

It was taking 51 & X51s an hour to get from Walsall to The Scott Arms, no idea why at the moment, 33s weren't too bad

[Tara4352]

222 at dudley 1725 - 1750

[monkeyjoe]

Birchfield road services seem like they're all screwed at the moment. Got into town 18:15 from work to find the X56 only just loading, and the queues on all 3 stops seemed horrendous so presumably hadn't been anything for a while

It was taking 51 & X51s an hour to get from Walsall to The Scott Arms, no idea why at the moment, 33s weren't too bad

M6 queues, Highway agency are jokers. Can't wait for them to shut Jct 5 slip road grrrrrr.