Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

[R879 HRF]

RE: Arriva North West - Birkenhead Depot

(09/10/2015 13:35)Myllenium2453 Wrote:  They are either 3 - 5 minutes early or up to 10 minutes late.

Has anybody noticed this lately.

Arriva birkenhead are very strict on early running, and if a driver leaves any designated timing point listed on the running board more than 1 minute early it is logged by the sophisticated GPS system,and the driver automatically issued a warning letter once triggered 3 times in a within a shift iirc. Therefore I highly doubt the majority of drivers are running any more than 1 minute early, perhaps your watch is slightly out? If as you say most are around 5 minutes early then the majority of drivers will be dismissed and we'll have no service. Are you sure it's not just the bus in front running 5 minutes late?

Late running is easy done, is hardly avoidable on a lot of routes throughout the day, especially those with poorly sequenced traffic lights, level crossings, heavy traffic areas and of course if a bus breaks down it leaves the bus behind with double the work, which as a result makes that bus later, and soon enough there's a 20 minute gap. As has been mentioned, leasowe level crossing can cause problems as do the traffic lights and traffic around birkenhead town, woodchurch asda and arrowe park hospital.

Keeping to time is a real task as a bus driver, and as enthusiasts we need to be understanding of the contributing factors to late running. Early running of more than 1 minute early is In excusable and is strictly dealt with at birkenhead.