(16 Apr 2019, 10:04 pm)V514DFT Unless the Indigo North Tyne brand is being scrapped?

(16 Apr 2019, 10:12 pm)Malarkey That would mean repainting 14 Solo SR's which currently carry the branding and judging by recent repaints for the Solo SR's at Deptford I don't see GNE dropping Indigo as a brand anytime soon.

Any Indigo Solo SR's which are getting repainted are likely due to impending PVR reductions as a result of service changes on the 40/41 & 42 and reallocation elsewhere in the fleet.

(16 Apr 2019, 9:58 pm)Malarkey The X5 needs a full sized single decker with the amount of passengers using the service between Sunderland, Doxford International and Peterlee as I know from working up Doxy in the past it is busy in both directions throughout the day, I can't see it using Solo SR's.

I think depending on what's on order double decker wise and which services are inline for an upgrade we will see the Red Kite/Prince Bishops go to full double decker operation with the Streetlites going on the likes of the X30 at Stanley and the 6's at Riverside for example with the Omnicities moving into a spare capacity replacing the Solars.

The Solo SR's have to be moving on to a service where they'd be fit for purpose to have wifi, usb and nsa's to which I think the 19 at Percy Main would be a good shout.

(17 Apr 2019, 12:00 am)JM03 Large 19 vehicles run off scholars, they are needed less they upgrade some scholars to double deckers. 442,660 and 680 all run onto 19

(16 Apr 2019, 8:09 am)Tyne_Traveller Certainly the way the boundaries are coloured can cause confusion. Take for example the orange zone encompassing Ashington/Blyth and Alston and Allenheads. On the face of it that may not sound too bad as there are no direct buses without having to change and travel via 2 other zones. However, as I witnessed last week, a couple with Blue and Orange attempted to travel to Corbridge without the intermediate zone (cherry) The driver politely explained they required a 3 zone plus and showed the couple a map when they became argumentative. On the south side of the Tyne Valley the cherry zone will only take you 5 miles from Stanley Burn to Stocksfield Rail station, but an orange zone will cover you from there to Hexham and onwards to Alston/Allenheads/Bellingham/Haltwhisitle and Birdsoswald. Maybe the West Northumberland and Cumbria zone needs a look at with a different colour.

(16 Apr 2019, 10:04 pm)V514DFT Unless the Indigo North Tyne brand is being scrapped?

(17 Apr 2019, 8:10 am)RBZ 5459 The brand name isn't as far as I know.... an indiGo downgrade here, but an indiGo upgrade there.

(16 Apr 2019, 10:51 pm)Tom I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see Solos on the 11, not exactly the busiest between Wallsend and Whitley Bay.

(17 Apr 2019, 8:00 am)Andreos1 Compare that to the 4, which travels a short distance within the green zone and drivers don't bat an eyelid if you travel with say a red zone ticket.


I've never boarded within the green zone, so can't comment on the approach from that side of things.

(17 Apr 2019, 8:10 am)RBZ 5459 The brand name isn't as far as I know.... an indiGo downgrade here, but an indiGo upgrade there.

(17 Apr 2019, 3:21 pm)Dan Interesting - I suppose the burning question therefore is which indiGo services are being upgraded, and which ones are being downgraded?

If the North Tyneside examples are currently being fitted with USB sockets, it's an upgrade above the current high-spec indiGo.

(17 Apr 2019, 10:22 am)JP6004 Actually the red zone covers all of the route after openshaw bank top. The network one ticket technically shouldnt be used as outside the nexus area (county durham) however they are generally accepted as it come back into a nexus area. I believe it's only a few stops in Burnmoor

(17 Apr 2019, 4:49 pm)Andreos1 It was clarified that Boundary Houses was the red zone border the other day. 
The section beyond there to Bournmoor/Woodstone Village is within the green zone. Beyond there, the 4 goes back in to the red zone.

I often used a T&W ticket (it was much better value than the Day Rover at the time) on the 21A, despite it heading in and out of Co Durham. 
Unfortunately both the ticket and service were culled.

(17 Apr 2019, 5:17 pm)JP6004 As far as I'm aware the 4 has never been included in the green zone. The route map on GNE website states red zone after penshaw bank top. Yes it goes to green zone as soon as you turn off to woodstone village (the zone change for the 36/78) but not going through burnmoor and fencehouses.

Perhaps people are getting confused as the T&W area ends at boundary house and restarts at the fencehouses rail crossing (hence the lack of nexus bus stop timetables) GNE allow network one tickets to travel through county Durham on this part of the route without paying extra

(17 Apr 2019, 5:33 pm)Andreos1 Assuming this map is 100% accurate, it shows the boundary changes on the bend at Bournmoor cricket club and again just before the Floaters Mill.

(17 Apr 2019, 5:47 pm)JP6004 So the line cuts the corner of St Barnabas church, the boundary for the green zone shows the stop beside cricket club and rose crescent within red zone. Yes seems like this could of been better drawn but both stops appear to be in red with none in the green, therefore all stopping points in red zone

• Houghton-le-Spring Church to Penshaw Bank Top - red
  
• Penshaw Bank Top to Heworth - purple
  

(17 Apr 2019, 5:47 pm)JP6004 So the line cuts the corner of St Barnabas church, the boundary for the green zone shows the stop beside cricket club and rose crescent within red zone. Yes seems like this could of been better drawn but both stops appear to be in red with none in the green, therefore all stopping points in red zone

Screenshot_20190417-195409.jpg
Size 1.02 MB / Downloads 19

(17 Apr 2019, 5:57 pm)Dan The 4 is;

Houghton-le-Spring Church to Penshaw Bank Top - red
Penshaw Bank Top to Heworth - purple

(17 Apr 2019, 3:21 pm)Dan Interesting - I suppose the burning question therefore is which indiGo services are being upgraded, and which ones are being downgraded?

If the North Tyneside examples are currently being fitted with USB sockets, it's an upgrade above the current high-spec indiGo.