North East Buses

8 days until Martijn Gilbert takes over at Go North East

Liking the Market Street / Eldon Square thing. Can see it being useful to those bording at Gateshead Interchange / Hills Street

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(13 Aug 2018, 10:35 am)Jamie M wrote [ -> ]Liking the Market Street / Eldon Square thing. Can see it being useful to those bording at Gateshead Interchange / Hills Street

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Not much cop for those boarding for the previous 99% of the route though.

(13 Aug 2018, 11:38 am)Andreos1 wrote [ -> ]Not much cop for those boarding for the previous 99% of the route though.

Don't think it's especially helpful. Market Streets are everywhere. Maybe can get away with 'Eldon Square' but that's about it.

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Go North East Quaylink 5387 / NL63 YAV by kieron mathews, on Flickr

anyone know what has happened with 5387, photographed it at Saltmeadows today with missing branding and a broken destination screen?

(13 Aug 2018, 7:25 pm)TEN 6083 wrote [ -> ]Go North East Quaylink 5387 / NL63 YAV by kieron mathews, on Flickr

anyone know what has happened with 5387, photographed it at Saltmeadows today with missing branding and a broken destination screen?

Was involved in an rtc last month.

Noticed a Crusader with the new 'Market Street' destination this morning heading towards Newcastle, however this evening I saw a Crusader travelling over the High Level (Gateshead bound obviously) & it still had 'Market Street' on.
I wondered if it should have updated itself ready for the return leg or had the driver forgot to change it?


Also noticed a Citaro on the 97 and it had the large final stop only destination on it, (well, 'Newcastle'), so hopefully we'll see the new style appear on the Solars soon.

..And today I saw the Angels with 'Eldon Square' displayed.
Onboard do the NSAs change from Gateshead Interchange to say "This is the Angel 21 service to Eldon Square" too, or do they still say Newcastle?

I like how the streetlites nsa now refers to 6A with the new program. Seems like somebody's been hard at work..

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Optare Solo SR YA13AAE was parked in Saltmeadows Depot this afternoon. Ex Courtney.

(16 Aug 2018, 8:17 pm)Rapidsnap wrote [ -> ]Optare Solo SR YA13AAE was parked in Saltmeadows Depot this afternoon. Ex Courtney.

That one is 725 by our fleet list.

(14 Aug 2018, 6:15 pm)ne14ne1 wrote [ -> ]Noticed a Crusader with the new 'Market Street' destination this morning heading towards Newcastle, however this evening I saw a Crusader travelling over the High Level (Gateshead bound obviously) & it still had 'Market Street' on.
I wondered if it should have updated itself ready for the return leg or had the driver forgot to change it?

Also noticed a Citaro on the 97 and it had the large final stop only destination on it, (well, 'Newcastle'), so hopefully we'll see the new style appear on the Solars soon.

There was a glitch within the first few hours of it being rolled out on the 26/27 that if the driver tried to change the destination any earlier than the Market Street West stop, it would change the display back to 'Market Street'. This has since been corrected though, so any you saw at this point would have been drivers forgetting to change their destination.

At this stage it's impossible to set the destination for the return journey towards South Shields, as there's so many possibilities an inbound 26 or 27 can then go out as... A 26 to South Shields via Morrisons, omitting Morrisons, a short-terminating 26 to Jarrow or Gateshead, etc... So that responsibility currently remains with the driver. I believe Hanover and Ticketer are in discussions for their hardware to be linked so that a driver can input a trip number on his/her ticket machine which can automatically control the destination, but this has been an idea discussed for years so probably still a long way off yet.

Every service such have the large destination font from September, all being well, as every bus should be updated in line with the schools going back.

(15 Aug 2018, 4:28 pm)ne14ne1 wrote [ -> ]..And today I saw the Angels with 'Eldon Square' displayed.
Onboard do the NSAs change from Gateshead Interchange to say "This is the Angel 21 service to Eldon Square" too, or do they still say Newcastle?

A rather quick trial given it worked with few issues on the 26/27, so yes, promptly rolled out to everything else afterwards!

The Red Kites will start to receive new destination controllers from this Sunday, so these will also follow suit shortly with an 'Eldon Square' destination on approach to Newcastle too.

No, the announcements still say Newcastle at the moment. Bit more work involved to have the announcement changed too as it'd have to be set up differently and those announcements would have to be recorded... but it's on the list to do at some point!

(15 Aug 2018, 7:30 pm)Jamie M wrote [ -> ]I like how the streetlites nsa now refers to 6A with the new program. Seems like somebody's been hard at work..

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Haha, yes. They've been doing that for a few weeks now, so you're slacking if you've only just noticed! 

Most of the services regularly operated by buses with Next Stop Announcements (with LED screen) are now in the program. A bit of a stop-gap just until the announcements are actually programmed. The likes of the 28, 34, X22 at Chester-le-Street, and the 6, X30/X31, X70/X71 etc at Stanley.

(17 Aug 2018, 6:26 am)Dan wrote [ -> ]There was a glitch within the first few hours of it being rolled out on the 26/27 that if the driver tried to change the destination any earlier than the Market Street West stop, it would change the display back to 'Market Street'. This has since been corrected though, so any you saw at this point would have been drivers forgetting to change their destination.

At this stage it's impossible to set the destination for the return journey towards South Shields, as there's so many possibilities an inbound 26 or 27 can then go out as... A 26 to South Shields via Morrisons, omitting Morrisons, a short-terminating 26 to Jarrow or Gateshead, etc... So that responsibility currently remains with the driver. I believe Hanover and Ticketer are in discussions for their hardware to be linked so that a driver can input a trip number on his/her ticket machine which can automatically control the destination, but this has been an idea discussed for years so probably still a long way off yet.

Every service such have the large destination font from September, all being well, as every bus should be updated in line with the schools going back.



A rather quick trial given it worked with few issues on the 26/27, so yes, promptly rolled out to everything else afterwards!

The Red Kites will start to receive new destination controllers from this Sunday, so these will also follow suit shortly with an 'Eldon Square' destination on approach to Newcastle too.

No, the announcements still say Newcastle at the moment. Bit more work involved to have the announcement changed too as it'd have to be set up differently and those announcements would have to be recorded... but it's on the list to do at some point!



Haha, yes. They've been doing that for a few weeks now, so you're slacking if you've only just noticed! 

Most of the services regularly operated by buses with Next Stop Announcements (with LED screen) are now in the program. A bit of a stop-gap just until the announcements are actually programmed. The likes of the 28, 34, X22 at Chester-le-Street, and the 6, X30/X31, X70/X71 etc at Stanley.

To be fair on my part, they were just on red kites for the past few weeks

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Which depot will 725 be allocated too?


The official Go North Fleet allocation indicates the last Waggonway Scania (4958) has been withdrawn.

Hexham Bus Station has a large paper chart in a cabinet at the east end with 'all' destinations with details of which services serve those destinations and the stands that they leave from.

There are some 'howlers' - such as 74 to Bellingham, 687 to Corbridge and 682 to Beaumont Park . . .

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On the subject of timetables on bus stops (I know they aren't the responsibility of the bus operators but the County Council), the bus stop opposite the Angel Inn in Corbridge claims it is served by the TEN, but not the X84.
It's possible that the times are X84 times but the heading says TEN (or 10 to be precise).

Go North East 725 / YA13 AAE by kieron mathews, on Flickr

photo of 725 parked at Saltmeadows

Seems like somebody has been busy with displays at Stanley today.

Red Kites all upgraded.

Going to get a reply saying this was actually done 3 weeks ago, I guarantee
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(19 Aug 2018, 11:25 am)Jamie M wrote [ -> ]Seems like somebody has been busy with displays at Stanley today.

Red Kites all upgraded.

Going to get a reply saying this was actually done 3 weeks ago, I guarantee
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NK15EOG / 5416 - Wright Streetlite by Jamie MP, on Flickr

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(19 Aug 2018, 11:25 am)Jamie M wrote [ -> ]Seems like somebody has been busy with displays at Stanley today.

Red Kites all upgraded.

Going to get a reply saying this was actually done 3 weeks ago, I guarantee

Admittedly a couple did appear to have been updated a few weeks ago (5414 being one I believe), but all, including the aforementioned ones, will have been updated again today with the new controllers being fitted. 

What is the basic criteria that needs to be met in order to have the new controllers fitted? I'd probably guess WiFi given the connection that is needed but apart from that, I wouldn't be able to make any logical assumptions.

(19 Aug 2018, 12:38 pm)S813 FVK wrote [ -> ]Admittedly a couple did appear to have been updated a few weeks ago (5414 being one I believe), but all, including the aforementioned ones, will have been updated again today with the new controllers being fitted. 

What is the basic criteria that needs to be met in order to have the new controllers fitted? I'd probably guess WiFi given the connection that is needed but apart from that, I wouldn't be able to make any logical assumptions.

5414 had some mirror testing or something along the lines a few weeks ago so sounds like it was done then.

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(12 Aug 2018, 4:26 pm)Michael wrote [ -> ]8 days until Martijn Gilbert takes over at Go North East

Wonder what Martijn Gilbert's first job will be tomorrow???

Hopefully planning to get rid of the pointless brands... Green/Blue Arrow, See it do it Sunderland, Lambton Worm (since they are 1 branded bus down), Indigo, The 9/49.


Brings back paper timetables for the moaners.

Orders decent buses (for June 2019)

(19 Aug 2018, 2:03 pm)Michael wrote [ -> ]Wonder what Martijn Gilbert's first job will be tomorrow???

Hopefully planning to get rid of the pointless brands... Green/Blue Arrow, See it do it Sunderland, Lambton Worm (since they are 1 branded bus down), Indigo, The 9/49.


Brings back paper timetables for the moaners.

Orders decent buses (for June 2019)

What about the fact anybody can buy an 18 under and the fact the 11 has a stupid number of fare options.

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(19 Aug 2018, 2:28 pm)Jamie M wrote [ -> ]What about the fact anybody can buy an 18 under and the fact the 11 has a stupid number of fare options.

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Wouldn't know about that, haven't had a under 18 ticket for nearly 10 years

(19 Aug 2018, 2:31 pm)Michael wrote [ -> ]Wouldn't know about that, haven't had a under 18 ticket for nearly 10 years ??

All sorts of people claim to be under 18 and it can't really be contested without ID

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(19 Aug 2018, 3:02 pm)Jamie M wrote [ -> ]All sorts of people claim to be under 18 and it can't really be contested without ID

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I've seen numerous drivers ask people for ID on the 1/11.

(19 Aug 2018, 3:02 pm)Jamie M wrote [ -> ]All sorts of people claim to be under 18 and it can't really be contested without ID

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Those 2 question marks was supposed to be a laughing emoji, didn't work for some reason.

(19 Aug 2018, 3:05 pm)Michael wrote [ -> ]Those 2 question marks was supposed to be a laughing emoji, didn't work for some reason.

Didn't think you were the passive aggressive type

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(19 Aug 2018, 12:38 pm)S813 FVK wrote [ -> ]Admittedly a couple did appear to have been updated a few weeks ago (5414 being one I believe), but all, including the aforementioned ones, will have been updated again today with the new controllers being fitted. 

What is the basic criteria that needs to be met in order to have the new controllers fitted? I'd probably guess WiFi given the connection that is needed but apart from that, I wouldn't be able to make any logical assumptions.

All of the Streetlites were fitted with new controllers today, but the B9s probably won't follow suit now until mid-September (although they had the existing controllers updated today).

As standard, Go North East now have the ability to wirelessly update the destination displays and Next Stop Announcements on-board the bus (using the vehicle's Wi-Fi) on any new/refurbished vehicles. Really quick and easy, and saves a lot of time at depot level having these things done manually.

This technology has been around now for around three years, but has advanced since it was initially introduced. Initial installations could only facilitate downloading destination displays via a bulky box which connected to the existing destination controller - this wasn't the most reliable so Hanover developed a new product which was a Wi-Fi enabled version of the standard destination controller towards the end of 2016 which was found to be much more reliable, so was spec'd by Go North East on all new orders from this point onwards.

Excluding vehicle refurbishments, only vehicles new 2015 onwards (i.e. Coast & Country onwards) were spec'd with a Next Stop Announcement unit capable of wirelessly updating the content. This means that there's a bit of a gap between 2015 and 2017 where some vehicles can download Next Stop Announcements but not the content of destination displays. It doesn't pose too much of an issue until new journeys are being added, or existing journeys are being re-numbered in the lists, meaning a destination display update has to be manually done at the very same time as the Next Stop Announcement media update (otherwise the announcements could potentially say the wrong things!)

The pre-owned buses being taken from London, Go South Coast and Dawson Rentals mostly all require new destination controllers - it makes no sense to fit brand new kit in these buses when they're largely being used for contracts, so the decision was made to start work on filling that aforementioned 'gap'... All of the Prince Bishops (new in 2016) can now wirelessly download both destinations and Next Stop Announcements, and likewise the Red Kites (new in 2015). The controllers from these buses can then be fitted to the pre-owned buses being received at the moment.

The Peterlee minibuses are due to have these controllers fitted next month too, and the ones which don't have Next Stop Announcements will also be fitted to eliminate the need for any bus at Peterlee to be updated manually.

(19 Aug 2018, 12:47 pm)Jamie M wrote [ -> ]5414 had some mirror testing or something along the lines a few weeks ago so sounds like it was done then.

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5414 was the only one that was updated before today - it had a broken window on 13th July so was at Saltmeadows Road to have that repaired. A lot of the work I do is more convenient to complete at the bodyshop than an operational depot, so I quickly jumped on it to update it while it was there.

Connections 4 is on diversion for this week only from mount pleasant onto Washington highway to shiney row.

6142 appears to have had some form repair to it's rear end....

Go North East 6142 / YN04 GJZ. by Guy Park-Royal, on Flickr