Thought it would be useful to have a press cuttings thread, rather than having to start a new thread for every other article regarding public transport in the North East. Mods: Feel free to split/rename/etc if you disagree.

"Cut-price travel for children in Tyne & Wear under threat".

If cheap fares are scrapped, some hard-pressed families will face extra costs running into hundreds of pounds a year to send their children to school by bus
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Cut-price child fares could be in the firing line following a cash crisis over concessionary travel.

If cheap fares are scrapped, some hard-pressed families will face extra costs running into hundreds of pounds a year to send their children to school by bus.

The problem has arisen in Tyne & Wear, where children can travel on the public transport network for 60p a trip or £1.10 for a day ticket under a scheme supported by councils and the transport authority.

But the funding crisis affecting free bus travel for pensioners and the disabled means transport chiefs may have to look for cuts elsewhere, including subsidised children’s fares.

The child fare scheme is safe until 2015 but if it’s scrapped families would probably have to pay between £100 and £300 extra a year for each child using the bus for school.

Public transport provider Nexus and the Tyne & Wear Integrated Transport Authority must by law operate the free bus pass scheme for 240,000 pensioners and disabled people.

Money is provided by the Government to the five Tyne & Wear councils which is then passed on to the transport authority via a levy.

The scheme costs £40m but there is a £17m funding gap expected to rise to £20m and if this is not plugged members of the ITA will have make cuts.

The subsidised child fare scheme, which is discretionary and believed to cost around £3m, is one target along with subsidised bus routes, including school, work, weekend and evening services

About 40,000 youngsters between five and 16 have Pop cards which cost £5, entitling them to cut price travel on the transport network including buses and Metro.

If the scheme is scrapped they would have to pay around 80p to £1.30 for a single bus ticket.

Coun David Wood, chairman of the ITA, said they have met MPs and he has personally raised the matter with the Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, but they will have to consider cuts if the funding gap is not sorted out by 2015.

“Members are horrified that this could happen,” he said. “The impact on families who are already struggling financially would be horrendous. We have to support concessionary travel for pensioners and disabled people by law and what money is left is used for other services.

“If we don’t get enough money we have to look at other areas which are not statutory including child fares and secured services.”

At the heart of the problem is a funding formula which dishes out money based on the number of elderly people in the area but does not take into account overall bus use.

Coun Greg Stone, a Liberal Democrat member of the ITA, said: “The concessionary travel funding formula has been problematic for a number of years under both the previous and current governments.

“The concessionary fare scheme for older people is a national government policy but it falls on local authorities to fund and the formula grant provided doesn't cover the full cost. As this is a national policy, I feel there is a strong case for the cost being met directly by national government via the Department for Transport. Regrettably, both the previous and current governments haven't seen fit to do this.’’

A delegation led by Newcastle City Council leader Nick Forbes met Mr McLoughlin in May and told him that unless the Government funding formula changes services will be lost.

Coun Forbes said: “We have always been strongly committed to supporting children’s travel on public transport and it would be a hugely backwards step if that concession was lost as a result of Government cuts.’’

Nexus already spends two-thirds of the total money it receives from local councils on concessionary travel.

Source: The Journal

They have by the looks of it taken over the 131 from Munroes
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nerbp/9215582147/

Born out of Aureolin's thread on photography and my response about all things old, it just brought back some memories of being on a bus when I were younger and wondered if anyone else had any to share.

One of my earliest memories was heading off to Jesmond Dene Pets Corner with one of my Grandparents. What was usually an uneventful trip to Gateshead on a 26, followed by the Metro to Newcastle (all pre-deregulation) was rudely interupted by the TWPTE Atlantean daring to have its stairs on the 'wrong side' of the bus! Me seeing a decker pull up and wondering how the hell you got upstairs has stayed with me to this day.
It has stopped with me almost as much as the vomit covering the upstairs front window of a United 723 Olympian a year or so later.

But not as much as throwing 'devil bangers' from the upstairs window (they slid open) of a VR at unsuspecting pedestrians who we passed on a 551 one summer - when I was a few years older.

I know we've got a thread for Cameras, but i thought I'd go ahead and create one for photography.

I personally tend to only photograph buses, but I know others tend to do a lot more than that. Although I quite often go through spells where I've got absolutely no enthusiasm to go out and take some shots.

When I'm out and about I'm keen to try and capture buses in as many different places as possible. I'm not a massive fan of bus station photography for two reasons: It tends to cause a lot of hassle (bus station management etc), and I personally find it difficult to just through photo after photo taken at the same spot. I don't mean to cause offence to anyone by that, it's just preference. Equally some people will dislike photos taken on route.

What's everyone else's preferences? What's people's favourite spots to shoot from? Has anyone had any bother?

Anyone going here?

http://www.waddingtonairshow.co.uk/display-aircraft

Stagecoach should put all there services back into Sunderland interchange instead of congestion all the streets in the city centre. If they have to pay to use it then pay. I always thought stagecoach was a so called big company in the uk. Interchanges are for all buses not just go north east n seagulls!!!!!!!

Seems a real shame Michael I remember all these running through grangetown years ago when united ran them prior to arriva takeover. I remember a 212 to deaf hill and still don't know where is it. Great connections the services you mentioned but the buses used were so old and dirty. I don't know why arriva buy so many cast offs however lately more up to date vehicles are been used on north Tyneside and Sunderland connections from Durham/Teesside

(30 Jun 2013, 9:20 pm)Adam Malarkey wrote Just been thinking and i'm pretty sure some of Arrivas Contracts are to run out in Durham/Bishop Auckland and are up for renewal soon, so possibly we could see GNE nick a few to build a bit of a presence. And also as mentioned before get a Depot in the Area to boost it ever.

And other thing I was thinking was extending the X21 to Darlington as currently there isn't an Xpress between Darlo and Newcastle, I was also thinking why don't GNE buy out Scarlet Band and there services, but obviously keep on the Drivers etc.

At the moment Arriva don't have any contracts in the Bishop Auckland area excluding scholars.

Bit of a crossover thread, so please feel free to move if need be.

Nexus have released their unaudited draft of their 2013 accounts, which can be found here: http://www.nexus.org.uk/sites/nexus.org....%20may.pdf . The performance and development section in particular makes interesting reading. Metro journeys drop by 0.5m, yet bus journeys increase by 3.0m.

Performance and Development
The following indicators describe the general performance of public transport in Tyne and Wear during 2012/13.
• The number of passenger journeys across Tyne and Wear reached more than 178 million; representing an
increase of almost 2 million journeys when compared to the previous year 2011/12.
• The main contributor to the patronage increase was Bus, with the number of journeys increasing by almost 3
million in 2012/13 to 139 million.
• Metro patronage declined by around 500,000 in 2012/13 to 37 million journeys. The impact that this loss of
patronage has on Nexus’ financial performance is kept under constant review.
• The cross Tyne ferry carried 432,000 passengers in 2012-13, below the 500,000 journeys seen for the
previous two years. It is thought that the impact of the second Tyne Tunnel has been instrumental in this
decline, added to which 2012 saw higher than average rainfall, impacting negatively on the number of
journeys made.
• Rail passengers in Tyne and Wear made more than 1.4 million journeys on local services .
• Metro reliability (operated mileage) has remained above 98.2% during 2012/13.
• Metro Charter punctuality was 86.0% during 2012/13, a decline on the 88.4% in the previous year.
Nexus invested £48.4m in its capital asset base during the year, most of which was directed at Metro, in line with its
11 year, £390m Asset Renewal Plan.

It says on the title, design your own bus station for the NE and upload it.. sorry was bored haha

Please move if in wrong area of forum =)



Stands would be as of now:

|-Stand A - Metro Replacement
|-Stand B - 23/24
|-Stand C - 61/X7
|-Stand D - 60
|-Stand E - 38/38C/238/39 (Doxford Park)
|-Stand F - 42
|-Stand G - 700
|-Stand H - 39 (Pennywell)/73
|-Stand I- 2A,2C
|-Stand J - 8,78,78A
|-Stand K 35/35A/35B/35C - Silksworth / Newbottle / Houghton-le-Spring
|-Stand L - X35
|-Stand M - 20,20A,X20
|-Stand N- E1/E2/E6
|-Stand O - 35/35A/35B/35C- South Shields
|-Stand P - 9/X3
|-Stand Q - 56/N56
|-Stand R - 26/26A/36/36A/135/136
|-Stand S - X36/700