(23 May 2021, 7:07 pm)OrangeArrow49 Are the 19 and 434 good services to Ashington? Is the 434 a contracted service? I'd like to go to Ashington some time. Maybe 309 to Blyth, then 434 to Ashington or maybe 309/310 to Cobalt and the 19 to Ashington. How good are the connections between the 19, 309 and 434? To get back I'd need a 19 to Cobalt and then a 309 back to Newcastle. Quite complicated to get to and from Ashington!

(23 May 2021, 7:22 pm)Storx Depends what your definition of good is. If it's going around the world and taking 5 times longer then maybe. The X20/X21/X22 are the buses to Ashington though and going any other way is just extremely complicated tbh. Ashington and Cambois aren't places I'd exactly be rushing to get to either no offence to them both. 

Oh and the 434 doesn't serve Blyth unless your planning to swim across the river :p North Blyth is near Cambois. It is contracted though by Northumberland Council.

(23 May 2021, 7:34 pm)OrangeArrow49 Thanks for the reply.

Stupidly, I thought I could get the 434 from Blyth, but it certainly is across the river! So 309 to Cobalt and 19 to Ashington would be the answer. 434 doesn't connect with any other services. I thought 434 must be contracted as it's so infrequent and doesn't seem like a pupular service. Are Northumberland contracts renewed every so often? Like 74/434/808 etc. Not sure how many Northumberland contracts there are.

(23 May 2021, 7:38 pm)Storx Honestly not sure how the contracts are done believe they're done on a longer basic rather than the approach Nexus does with them all being short contracts. 

Believe most of the Tynedale Links are though. You've got the S1/S2 in Morpeth, there's the Alnwick to Thropton service (forgot number), the 19 north of Northumberland Park which is in partnership with Cobalt, the 58 in partnership with the NHS (I believe) and the 57A evening services but believe they're done by Seaton Valley Parish Council. Other than that not sure there's anything else probably some of the Berwick local routes are aswell and the Wooler service which I don't know much about tbh

You should be able to get the 19 to Ashington and then the 434 back to Bedlington Station and change back onto the 19 or vice versa though, unsure on connections though.

(23 May 2021, 8:06 pm)OrangeArrow49 Yeah, Nexus are just a nightmare with their short contracts. Northumberland contracts are much longer. Is the Alnwick - Thropton service you're thinking of the Phoenix Coaches 15?  It's good most services are commercially viable.

434 doesn't seem like a good service for me to use. 

Phoenix Coaches are good and should introduce more services.

Seriously expect GCT will get (and ruin) the 33/33A next March. GNE will almost certainly lose it. Q3 will always be there hopefully, but shame about the 33/A, it'd a good service I haven't used much.

(23 May 2021, 8:14 pm)Storx Yeah that's the one the 15, used to be ran by the independent Spirit Buses before it got messed up by the X14 changing timetables and messing up connections. 

Tbf though we've got similar problems with Rural Link or whatever name it wants to call itself this week who never run services and nothing is ever done. Believe they got some of the Hexham contracts recently aswell. It's even more of a grim bus company than GCT. Least they have buses which are fit for the road.

Phoenix used to run a few services in Nexus land but haven't got anything recently. Sure they had the 19 at one point. Veolia were the best tho imo shame they shut down though. That's a while ago now though.

(23 May 2021, 7:22 pm)Storx Depends what your definition of good is. If it's going around the world and taking 5 times longer then maybe. The X20/X21/X22 are the buses to Ashington though and going any other way is just extremely complicated tbh. Ashington and Cambois aren't places I'd exactly be rushing to get to either no offence to them both. 

Oh and the 434 doesn't serve Blyth unless your planning to swim across the river :p North Blyth is near Cambois. It is contracted though by Northumberland Council.

(23 May 2021, 10:31 pm)OrangeArrow49 The 19 is just over an hour to Ashington from Cobalt. Shame the 434 doesn't serve Blyth. A link from Ashington to Blyth would be good.

(23 May 2021, 11:33 pm)omnicity4659 1 runs between Ashington and Blyth - an Arriva service.

434 doesn't serve Blyth because it was cut back to provide a more frequent service for those in Cambois and North Blyth, the only places it was intended to benefit. When the 30 and 34 merged it became Linton to Bedlington Station, with a frequency reduction so it used one bus instead of the previous two from Arriva/Phoenix.

The main purpose of the 434 is to connect the four villages of Linton, Cambois, North Blyth and West Sleekburn to amenities in Ashington. It's not really for end-to-end journeys.

(23 May 2021, 11:59 pm)OrangeArrow49 Of course. So I suppose GNE wouldn't introduce a service.

I see the 434 used to serve Haymarket, Regent Centre/Gosforth and then Wideopen and Seaton Burn to Bedlington, Stakeford and North Seaton, back in 1996. A shame we don't have a service like that anymore, from Regent Centre to Wideopen and Seaton Burn to somewhere like Blyth or something.

Yeah, I was only going to use the 434 Blyth to Ashington, but it doesn't serve Blyth. Disappointing.

(24 May 2021, 2:11 am)omnicity4659 I think today's 434 was the 444 at that point in time. That 434 shadows most of the X21/X22.

I wasn't aware of that particular 434 though, the North Seaton part of it actually lasted into the last decade as part of a singular X21 journey.

(24 May 2021, 12:38 pm)OrangeArrow49 Ah, thanks for that.

Shame they won't  bring that particular 434 back, or a similar route. Hopefully the 19 will continue to exist (I doubt it will) to serve Ashington.

(24 May 2021, 9:17 pm)omnicity4659 That 434 is kinda provided by the X20/X21/X22 now, and the top end of Seaton Burn is served by the stop outside of the Services, which is/was used by a couple of people when I used to commute at a similar time to the 434. Not really the demand there for a place which doesn't have many work opportunities.

(24 May 2021, 12:38 pm)OrangeArrow49 Ah, thanks for that.

Shame they won't  bring that particular 434 back, or a similar route. Hopefully the 19 will continue to exist (I doubt it will) to serve Ashington.

(25 May 2021, 8:04 am)V514DFT Is the 57A the old 442,did GNE ever run their equivilent to that

(25 May 2021, 8:17 pm)Big O How well are the X20/21/22 services used?