Guess the same goes for the Tyne Valley Tens as well then

Some of that batch that I've been on are in dire need of a refresh or at least a good scrub.

Some of that batch that I've been on are in dire need of a refresh or at least a good scrub.

Agree, the Tyne Valley Ten batch are in much greater need of some TLC than the Fab56s (which in my view are still in pretty good condition!)

Hope so, the orange looks horrendous now, if the Drifter Streetlites get done, i think we will see the brand dropped, its a pointless brand.

So you're saying the orange looked good at one point?

So you're saying the orange looked good at one point?

It did.. when they first arrived.

Speaking of the Tyne Valley Ten B9s - don't think it has been noted yet that all bar two are now fitted with SCRTs to upgrade emission ratings to Euro 6.

The two which haven't been fitted, 6046 and 6075, should be completed next week.

Speaking of the Tyne Valley Ten B9s - don't think it has been noted yet that all bar two are now fitted with SCRTs to upgrade emission ratings to Euro 6.

The two which haven't been fitted, 6046 and 6075, should be completed next week.

Thanks for the update, anymore GNE buses getting the Euro 6 upgrade?

Thanks for the update, anymore GNE buses getting the Euro 6 upgrade?

Over 120 in total!

Speaking of the Tyne Valley Ten B9s - don't think it has been noted yet that all bar two are now fitted with SCRTs to upgrade emission ratings to Euro 6.

The two which haven't been fitted, 6046 and 6075, should be completed next week.

Has it been confirmed yet what upgrades will be happening to the Streetdecks?

Over 120 in total!

Interesting, wonder if that includes the 56 then, with it entering Newcastle.

Anymore info on what services are getting the upgrades?

So you're saying the orange looked good at one point?

Yeah when new in 2013.

Ye, i noticed that today, wonder if that means new buses are on order in the 2020/2021 financial year?... we can hope " alt="" title="">

Still 2019/2020 financial year to consider. The current order is 2018/2019 with orders placed before June this year.

Here's hoping for Red Arrow upgrade since they not being refurbed

Still 2019/2020 financial year to consider. The current order is 2018/2019 with orders placed before June this year.

Here's hoping for Red Arrow upgrade since they not being refurbed

Oh ye, i always get mixed up with the financial years... silly me.


I think we might see the red arrows get the euro 6 upgrade, same as the Fab 56.

Oh ye, i always get mixed up with the financial years... silly me.


I think we might see the red arrows get the euro 6 upgrade, same as the Fab 56.

Hmmm me thinks red arrows will get new, will allow older deckers to be withdrawn.

5287 heading back to Deptford with an engineer.

6315 repeating the service & destination twice at each stop - reported to customer services - just fyi. They’ll be able to see if the driver reports it too after his shift of course.

 Also driver switched destination to Chester le Street 2 stops early. Luckily no guide dogs users on board today. Obviously cant comment on if there were any visually impaired or unfamiliar travellers onboard though.

Pleased to see the size of the brand & company logos increased on 6112. Looking a lot less empty in those areas now - to the extent where I now think it doesn't look too bad!

Go North East: 6112 / NL63XBW by Daniel Graham, on Flickr

Pleased to see the size of the brand & company logos increased on 6112. Looking a lot less empty in those areas now - to the extent where I now think it doesn't look too bad!

Go North East: 6112 / NL63XBW by Daniel Graham, on Flickr

But with limited space and a longer brand name, e.g. Tyne Valley Ten, it would have to shrink again. I can see why the brand name would be placed there, but it looks a bit out of place then moving the Go North East logo (with small text apart from the 'GO') to where it is.

The placement is exactly the same as Reading Buses, but there company logo is more prominent due to its size and shape. Arriva also placed brand logos in a similar place on the original Sapphire and MAX branding, but they almost dropped the Arriva name altogether on theirs - just a small 'from Arriva' strap of text or something along those lines.

709 now been repainted

I must say that 6112 looks very smart indeed! Don't want to start a game of bus wars off but the product offered by GNE is far superior to Arriva.

When are the next stop announcements being updated for the South Shields interchange

Pleased to see the size of the brand & company logos increased on 6112. Looking a lot less empty in those areas now - to the extent where I now think it doesn't look too bad!

Go North East: 6112 / NL63XBW by Daniel Graham, on Flickr

After looking at it again, I've found a couple more things that don't sit right with me. The black bar is too close to the wheel arch for my liking, it just looks a bit awkward. If they'd angled the end like they did on the other side I don't think it would have looked as bad.

And I think the text for the contactless is just uncomfortably large.

Quite a few things just seem out of proportion

When are the next stop announcements being updated for the South Shields interchange

They already have been (on Sunday gone), but a handful of buses haven't taken the update over the air yet. A number of Prince Bishops were updated manually this morning.

Had a few PMs recently as well as posts being reported about the talk of the next stop announcements on here, and this thread becoming a general Q&A session about when x is being done... Think as a rule of thumb I'm going to avoid responding to these questions going forward, and hopefully steers us back onto more interesting discussion points to keep everyone happy! There's lots going on at the moment, and some of it is being discussed on other forums, but we seem to be hung up on discussing next stop announcements on here... (they're not that interesting, trust me! )

And I think the text for the contactless is just uncomfortably large. 

Quite a few things just seem out of proportion

Why do you think it's "uncomfortably large"? You'd expect the font size on an advert to be this size, wouldn't you?

When an advert isn't placed in the holder, it's designed so that this is the advert. It's an advert for that bus, or that service. It's sometimes referred to as "impact messaging" and other operators (again, Reading Buses included) use this quite effectively.

Why do you think it's "uncomfortably large"? You'd expect the font size on an advert to be this size, wouldn't you?

When an advert isn't placed in the holder, it's designed so that this is the advert. It's an advert for that bus, or that service. It's sometimes referred to as "impact messaging" and other operators (again, Reading Buses included) use this quite effectively.

Just because something works in one area, doesn't necessarily mean it should be copied, what happened to that differentiator approach?!?

Just because something works in one area, doesn't necessarily mean it should be copied, what happened to that differentiator approach?!?

I assume the Managing Director quite likes the idea, so wants to keep using that approach?

After looking at it again, I've found a couple more things that don't sit right with me. The black bar is too close to the wheel arch for my liking, it just looks a bit awkward. If they'd angled the end like they did on the other side I don't think it would have looked as bad.

And I think the text for the contactless is just uncomfortably large.

Quite a few things just seem out of proportion

Perhaps you could mock up some designs for Go North East?  I'm sure they would be keen to take on your expertise.

They already have been (on Sunday gone), but a handful of buses haven't taken the update over the air yet. A number of Prince Bishops were updated manually this morning.

Had a few PMs recently as well as posts being reported about the talk of the next stop announcements on here, and this thread becoming a general Q&A session about when x is being done... Think as a rule of thumb I'm going to avoid responding to these questions going forward, and hopefully steers us back onto more interesting discussion points to keep everyone happy! There's lots going on at the moment, and some of it is being discussed on other forums, but we seem to be hung up on discussing next stop announcements on here... (they're not that interesting, trust me! )

Posts being reported about NSA's?!

Were they the nasty, offensive ones where all sorts of swearing, name calling and sh!T happened or the ones where grown up, adult discussion or questioning happened?

Sad times. It really is.

Posts being reported about NSA's?!

Were they the nasty, offensive ones where all sorts of swearing, name calling and sh!T happened or the ones where grown up, adult discussion or questioning happened?

Sad times. It really is.

To be fair, I do think there's some substance in the view that this thread has become a Q&A thread with very little discussion as we had in the past (and that's probably my fault for answering the questions, I hold my hands up there!)

Go back five years and the quality of our discussions and debate were much better, with far greater participation, don't you think? This good quality discussion is still taking place elsewhere (even on groups which are incredibly militant) and it's probably because answers aren't being given, it's left for everyone to debate and discuss.

I don't think the posts were reported as being offensive etc (which is why they weren't moderated), more so that this thread probably wasn't ever intended to be a direct line to GNE's Commercial Team and there's a customer services team to help with those things.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

Why do you think it's "uncomfortably large"? You'd expect the font size on an advert to be this size, wouldn't you?

When an advert isn't placed in the holder, it's designed so that this is the advert. It's an advert for that bus, or that service. It's sometimes referred to as "impact messaging" and other operators (again, Reading Buses included) use this quite effectively.

It's hard to say, it just doesn't look quite right to my eye, but I suppose that's the same with everything isn't it.

Like you say, it's essentially a built in advert, but I think if the background wasn't the same colour as the rest of the bus it may have had a bit more 'impact'

Not to say it looks bad by any means, it's certainly a lot better than some other liveries that's for sure!

Since that seems to have killed this completely, I guess we'll go back to having a discussion.

I remember Martijn tweeting a while back along the lines of "you've seen nothing yet" regarding the interiors of the new buses.

GNE interiors are already pretty nice, so I do wonder what they could do to make it better. The only things I can think of would be changing the seats for something a bit more padded, not to say they're uncomfortable at the minute, I regularly do 2 hour journeys on them without any issue. Having said that, when I tried out the refurbished B9s, I did find the seats rather uncomfortable. Speaking of the B9s, I'd guess they'll be adding the wireless charging (although in my experience it charged so slow that my battery actually went down).

One thing I would actually quite like is blinds, especially on the X21 since it spends most of it's journey going north/south, the side of my head is always burning.

And is there a reason why the front seats upstairs don't have a table? It seems like there's plenty of room to put in a table

Since Dan is a self-confessed 'direct line to GNE's Commercial Team', maybe he can chime in ?