Due to a shortage of MAN 14.240 LF/Alexander Enviro 200 vehicles at Walkergate, this vehicle has temporarily transferred from Slatyford Depot to Walkergate. MAN 18.220LF/Transbus ALX300 22022 (NK03 XJN) has replaced it at Slatyford.
To alleviate shortages at Walkergate Depot; this vehicle has been reinstated into the main service fleet at Slatyford Depot, allowing Slatyford-based MAN 14.240 LF/Alexander Enviro 200 39706 (NK58 AFX) to temporarily transfer to Walkergate, covering for similar examples which are unfit for service. Although this vehicle was absorbed into the Driver Training fleet on paper, it never came out of active service in reality.
Ahead of upcoming service changes in May, this vehicle has been repainted into a plain black base livery. From May 21st 2017; services 6, X30/X31 and X70/X71 will all be branded as "Toon Link" with a mixed allocation of Scania OmniCitys and Scania OmniDekkas (the latter of which will be allocated to certain running boards in order to provide a higher capacity on certain peak-time journeys where this is required).
With "Toon Link" service 12 being upgraded with the former "Blaydon Racers" branded Mercedes Citaro 0530N/Mercedes Citaro vehicles, now internally refurbished and repainted into a plain black base livery, this vehicle has transferred from Riverside Depot to Stanley. Upcoming service changes in May will see the "Toon Link" brand encompass services 6, X30/X31 and X70/X71 with a mixed allocation of Scania OmniCitys and Scania OmniDekkas (the latter of which are currently undergoing repaint). This vehicle's sub-branding for service 12 is planned to be stripped and replaced with new branding imminently.
Following the completion of modifications at Thornton Brothers, Ashington, this vehicle has returned to service within Riverside's Driver Training fleet.
Following the completion of modifications at Thornton Brothers, Ashington, this vehicle has returned to service within Riverside's Driver Training fleet.
Pending commencement of the new X55 service; this vehicle has entered service at Sunderland Depot, where it will be trialled on service X24 (Sunderland - Newcastle). The purpose of the trial is to allow Stagecoach to gauge whether coaches would be an improvement over the current single-deck Scania K270UB/Scania Omnilink buses which operate on this express route. During the trial period, it will also allow Stagecoach to undertake maintenance on 24001 - 24003, which have suffered reliability issues as of late. This vehicle is expected to remain at Sunderland until 12th May 2017.
This vehicle has been treated to a partial repaint into Go North East's new corporate livery. The new livery design is a a lot more eye-catching and features a two-tone base livery, with the traditional key colour of red towards the front of the bus, and non-metallic dark blue towards the back. This example carries the tagline "Never miss your stop | Many of our buses have next stop screens and announcements"
Having previously carried "SimpliCity" branding, this vehicle has been repainted into a plain blue base livery. From Saturday 3rd June 2017, the operation of "See it, Do it, Sunderland" service 36 will transfer from Deptford Depot to Chester-le-Street. As Chester-le-Street do not have any Mercedes Citaros at the moment; service 36 will instead be allocated Optare Versas in a new blue base livery (albeit with amendments to the branding), which will standardise the vehicle types at each depot.
