North East Buses

I recently headed off to the real Costa del Sol, not to be confused with the Easington Lane variation.
The management is typically Spanish; lazy and over-bureaucratic. There are no timetables stuck to shelters or anything at all. The buses don't have any branding or anything at all to indicate even what company they belong to. The LED display simply displays the destination, with no route number or via points, yet each takes a hugely varying route to its destination. This means having to board the bus to asatain where the bus is actually going. This only stands for half of the fleet of B9 style triaxial coaches.

The other half is a collection of battered blue unidentifiable tin boxes, far too boring to deserve a place in this post. These buses don't have any destination board, only "Line A" painted on the side, almost obscured with age. The seats were almost identical to GNE's classic mosaic seats.

These buses run half hourly via wherever, but if you can cut through all the astranged organisational features - you have yourself a speedy ride on what is effectively a brand new coach or a washing machine. Every trip is packed, somehow everyone copes.

The clear message I've learned is that however bad GNE/SNE/ANE may appear to us through bad customer service or late workings or whatever it is you may have issues with, this isn't much compared to the horribly disorganised (yet functional) system employed by ALSA, where you have to dig through horrible websites to dig up any idea of a timetable and beg the driver to establish where it is you are actually going to.

If you are planning any trips to South Spain - make sure you do your own research online to since this is almost certainly the expectation!

I recently went to Benidorm and i thought the buses were decent, seen some Scania's although not sure on the model etc, I didn't have time to ride any of the routes but i do remember riding them years ago and the drivers were crazy.

Tbh i'm not even sure if any changes have happened since last time i was on them, must be over 10 years ago now

(21 Jun 2016, 7:19 pm)Michael wrote [ -> ]I recently went to Benidorm and i thought the buses were decent, seen some Scania's although not sure on the model etc, I didn't have time to ride any of the routes but i do remember riding them years ago and the drivers were crazy.

Tbh i'm not even sure if any changes have happened since last time i was on them, must be over 10 years ago now

Benidorm have Scania K280UBs and Scania L94UBs , With the last being the same chassis as GNE Solars.
Both are bodied by Spanish Bodybuilder Tata-Hispano.

(21 Jun 2016, 7:10 pm)Jamie M wrote [ -> ]I recently headed off to the real Costa del Sol, not to be confused with the Easington Lane variation.
The management is typically Spanish; lazy and over-bureaucratic. There are no timetables stuck to shelters or anything at all. The buses don't have any branding or anything at all to indicate even what company they belong to. The LED display simply displays the destination, with no route number or via points, yet each takes a hugely varying route to its destination. This means having to board the bus to asatain where the bus is actually going. This only stands for half of the fleet of B9 style triaxial coaches.

The other half is a collection of battered blue unidentifiable tin boxes, far too boring to deserve a place in this post. These buses don't have any destination board, only "Line A" painted on the side, almost obscured with age. The seats were almost identical to GNE's classic mosaic seats.

These buses run half hourly via wherever, but if you can cut through all the astranged organisational features - you have yourself a speedy ride on what is effectively a brand new coach or a washing machine. Every trip is packed, somehow everyone copes.

The clear message I've learned is that however bad GNE/SNE/ANE may appear to us through bad customer service or late workings or whatever it is you may have issues with, this isn't much compared to the horribly disorganised (yet functional) system employed by ALSA, where you have to dig through horrible websites to dig up any idea of a timetable and beg the driver to establish where it is you are actually going to.

If you are planning any trips to South Spain - make sure you do your own research online to since this is almost certainly the expectation!

I have been hunting for this thread for ages. Searching for Malaga doesnt bring it up and obviously it isn't in the 'bus operators elsewhere' thread.

Over the summer, I spent a long weekend in the area and saw a mixture of vehicles. Ranging from modern to old. Didnt recognise a thing.

On the longer journeys, there seemed to be a mixed fleet. Coaches for express and low floor vehicles for stopping.
They were all numbered and all followed a route. Stops had a line map of the route too.
Not as presentable as TIB for example, but very reasonably priced.

On another trip abroad this summer, I experienced an OmniLine for the first time. It took some time to find out what vehicle I'd actually ridden, but knowing it had some physical resemblance to an OmniCity was a start.
Again, prices were very reasonable. The coach seating was an added bonus.

Not much of a bus user abroad (prefer train or tram), but having used buses in several countries now, it is amazing how affordable they are compared to some operators back home. Particularly when municipally owned/operated.

Aye I remember a lot of vehicles were tin boxes on milk bottle tops for wheels.

Council owned services will always be cheaper as they are not trying to make a profit. Public transport needs to be a lossmaker in order to properly be serving the public.

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I think they changed their fleet in the meantime. 
Should be a viable alternative for local transportation now.
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Alexandra
brand management