(26 Jul 2014, 8:13 pm)Marcus wrote Now that GNE's X3 has gone 'down the river', I think GNE's 71 will become the main topic in GNE's side of things.

As I use the 71 regularly, I must say, although I may have said differently in the past, I don't think there is actually anything wrong with the service itself. It just needs a better timetable in order to function properly, and I don't think the answer is to combine services, and resultantly withdrawing some. All of the places served bring passengers, and that is the main thing, it just isn't good enough in terms of reliability and
timing.

Maybe a typical run to Houghton and back could be;

Chester Front Street --- 15
Houghton Le Spring --- 50
(the extra 5 minutes allows any time lost to be made up for, and not destroy the rest of the day for the service)
Houghton Le Spring --- 55
Chester Le Street --- 30
(fair enough this leaves 15 minutes, but the service can lose, in some cases, about 10 minutes when picking up people going into Chester)

I'm crap at making timetables, so I'll let someone else try

(26 Jul 2014, 8:17 pm)Marcus wrote Anyone remember the old X50 by Go North East (or, Go Northern, depending which way you look at it)? Didn't it interwork with an X20 when it got to Durham or something? Must have been a nightmare for the drivers!

(26 Jul 2014, 8:30 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote I appreciate I may sound like a broken record, but with the 'let's make the 21 work at any cost' attitude and axing of the 21a, the service was doomed to be second or third rate at best.

You have said yourself how the passengers work, in the main - using the service either side of the county border.
Fares are ridiculous and buses have been cast offs since day 1.

People don't want to go to Chester or Houghton, hang around waiting for connections (connections need to work both ways, not just on the way out) and huddle around in poor 'interchange' facilities and pay a premium for the privilege.

You don't need to be a genius to know that either.

The service was squeezed out of the Sunderland - Houghton market and is being squeezed on local sections too.

Just wish the powers that be, listened to what passengers wanted and not forced the services onto the communities it serves.


Aye, especially on days like today.

Used vehicles already in the fleet, until they decided to purchase Solars for it.
Apparently it was amongst the fastest growing services around.

Not sure why they scrapped it if that was the case... :s

(26 Jul 2014, 8:30 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Aye, especially on days like today.

Used vehicles already in the fleet, until they decided to purchase Solars for it.
Apparently it was amongst the fastest growing services around.

Not sure why they scrapped it if that was the case... :s

(26 Jul 2014, 8:36 pm)Marcus wrote You've basically just said what I tried to say, Andreos - I'm terrible at explaining stuff!

I agree, I reckon the depot just throws out whatever they want on it, Lolynes, B10BLEs, Scanias, the list goes on!

The communities (cough cough FPF) that it serve would do a pretty good job of running it themselves, wouldn't you say

In regards to the X50, I recall, although once again, I was quite young when it was about, used to get the Nationals?

(26 Jul 2014, 8:38 pm)aureolin wrote Wasn't it when they took away the Pink Panther services that done Newton Hall and Pit Lane? Instead, they diverted the X50 round Pit Lane and took away it's Xpress status. I remember them wittering on about it at the time saying something along the lines of if there are two routes in Durham, why not have one serve one and one serve the other...


A controversial service for me has to be when the M1 was re-routed to serve Fencehouses. There was a complete disregard for the amount of passengers that travelled from Washington to Phillidelphia for college. You would never be able to get moved on the 194/294 on a morning or evening, and that was on a 10 min frequency with Renowns and later Solars. The reason it was so controversial was because it was apparently done based on customer responses to their consultation, which is actually one of the most misleading questions I've seen in my life. See question 1.

And on a lighter note... the 638! Some loved it, some hated it, most didn't give a flying preverbial! It was one of those routes that everyone knew about and had used at some point.

(26 Jul 2014, 8:52 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote And that is after several alcoholic beverages and an afternoon in the sun .

Can't remember Nationals being on it.
Plaxton Verdes were if I remember right.

(26 Jul 2014, 9:03 pm)aureolin wrote What about the real controversial services. Who was it who tried to go to war with Busways in Newcastle, and we got Magicbus as a result of it?? What about the Durham Rd bus war? Was it Classic that ran a 21 down there?

And lets not forget the Bargain Bus the days where a Tyneside civil ('turf' ) war almost erupted.

(26 Jul 2014, 8:59 pm)aureolin wrote Can't remember Nationals either. I seem to recall Deltas though. Possibly around 99/00? From that I can only recall SPDs, Solars, DAFs, until the Solars were put back on in 2009-ish(?)

(26 Jul 2014, 9:07 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote ANE were feeding their drivers raw meat!

Can remember Magic Bus, but can't remember the competitions name.
Pretty sure it was a small independent.

Aye, Classic ran all sorts to Chester. Can remember RE's being used at one point!
Used a rip off tag line too - Proud of our routes, opposed to Northerns Proud of our heritage line.

(26 Jul 2014, 9:07 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote ANE were feeding their drivers raw meat!

Can remember Magic Bus, but can't remember the competitions name.
Pretty sure it was a small independent.

Aye, Classic ran all sorts to Chester. Can remember RE's being used at one point!
Used a rip off tag line too - Proud of our routes, opposed to Northerns Proud of our heritage line.

(26 Jul 2014, 9:14 pm)aureolin wrote It was. There was hell on over it, with it being labelled as Stagecoach trying to drive independents out of town. I'll have to have a look over Newcastle Library, as there's bound to be some press cuttings.

As for Classic. I found this on YouTube. Classic, United and Northern all features, including the GNE X1 to the Boro, operated using a Leyland Tiger!

(26 Jul 2014, 8:59 pm)aureolin wrote Can't remember Nationals either. I seem to recall Deltas though. Possibly around 99/00? From that I can only recall SPDs, Solars, DAFs, until the Solars were put back on in 2009-ish(?)

(26 Jul 2014, 9:14 pm)aureolin wrote It was. There was hell on over it, with it being labelled as Stagecoach trying to drive independents out of town. I'll have to have a look over Newcastle Library, as there's bound to be some press cuttings.

(26 Jul 2014, 9:12 pm)Marcus wrote This photo seems to disagree; (although it was taken in 2000)

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/8050359@N07/7226954952/in/search_QM_q_IS_september+21+2000_AND_mt_IS_all_AND_w_IS_all

Here it is, but with X20/X50 branding;

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/rpbsp/13672538123/in/search_QM_q_IS_go+ahead+X50_AND_mt_IS_all_AND_w_IS_all

So yeah, I guess Scanias were the allocation

(26 Jul 2014, 9:07 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote ANE were feeding their drivers raw meat!

(26 Jul 2014, 10:44 pm)AdamY wrote There is indeed some press cuttings and the independent's name was HMB.

http://northeastbuses.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?tid=270

(27 Jul 2014, 9:41 am)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Was there someone else prior to them?
I can remember Magic Bus deckers bombing about Newcastle a few years prior to the dates you mentioned in that link.

(27 Jul 2014, 9:41 am)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Was there someone else prior to them?
I can remember Magic Bus deckers bombing about Newcastle a few years prior to the dates you mentioned in that link.

(27 Jul 2014, 10:22 am)AdamY wrote Bus was first trialled in Newcastle in 1997. I also thought they were around prior to this date (around 1995-ish) but apparently I was mistaken.

Previous to the HMB/Magic Bus saga, there was competition over similar routes with TWOC and Welcome challenging Busways. However this took place in the latter part of the 80s and lasted until around 1992/93-ish. TWOC were bought out in 1990 (by GNE who immediately sold the company to Busways) while Welcome were bought out in 1993 (also by Busways).

I believe dupes were registered on certain routes to combat the competition but there was no Magic Bus at this time.

(26 Jul 2014, 9:03 pm)aureolin wrote What about the real controversial services. Who was it who tried to go to war with Busways in Newcastle, and we got Magicbus as a result of it?? What about the Durham Rd bus war? Was it Classic that ran a 21 down there?

(27 Jul 2014, 12:51 am)GMitchelhill wrote Here is one that not many people will know of.

And I also manage the entire journey on my Network Teen Travelticket too since my starting point and alighting points were in Tyne and Wear.

Around 2000 / 2001, Compass Travel ran this service numbered the 318. It was a early morning only service and was a job link service. Anyway the route was as follows.

Newcastle Pilgrim Street - Gosforth - Dudley - Cramlington - Bedlington - Ashington - North Seaton - Spine Road - Cobalt - Willington Square - Howdon - Tyne Tunnel - A19 - Hastings Hill - The Broadway - Barnes Park Sunderland College Campus.

The vehicle was one of the 2 white Varios they had, either S20NET or S21NET.

It Departed Pilgrim Sreet around 7am and I alighted in The Broadway around about 9am. Oh and at any one point in the journey there was no more than 10 passengers.