(03 Jul 2022, 11:41 am)Washingtonian wrote There's been a lot of discussion on here about route numbers and how they are in a right mess, and I fully agree! You have the 1 serving North Tyneside mainly but then have the 2 serving Sunderland, the 4 mainly around Washington and Houghton, and then the 5 around South Shields. It's just all over the place. How about something this: -

North Tyneside - 1-50

Gateshead area - 50-100

Consett area - 101-150

County Durham area - 151-200

Washington Area - 201-250

Sunderland area - 251-300

South Shields - 301-350 etc

This is just an example. Ok there may not be 50 bus routes in one area but this would make room for any potential new routes for each area in the future. Routes to major attractions such as the MetroCentre should start with the letter of the main attraction it serves, so the X66 would become the M1 for example. All Xlines would be renumbered but retain the X at the start. Just a thought.

(03 Jul 2022, 11:41 am)Washingtonian wrote There's been a lot of discussion on here about route numbers and how they are in a right mess, and I fully agree! You have the 1 serving North Tyneside mainly but then have the 2 serving Sunderland, the 4 mainly around Washington and Houghton, and then the 5 around South Shields. It's just all over the place. How about something this: -

North Tyneside - 1-50

Gateshead area - 50-100

Consett area - 101-150

County Durham area - 151-200

Washington Area - 201-250

Sunderland area - 251-300

South Shields - 301-350 etc

This is just an example. Ok there may not be 50 bus routes in one area but this would make room for any potential new routes for each area in the future. Routes to major attractions such as the MetroCentre should start with the letter of the main attraction it serves, so the X66 would become the M1 for example. All Xlines would be renumbered but retain the X at the start. Just a thought.

(03 Jul 2022, 4:47 pm)GNE6312 wrote Coast road (bar the 51 & Cobalt expresses) is 306/308-311 believe there was a 307 a while ago to benton asda to fill that gap but it's been that way for as long as I can remember

(03 Jul 2022, 4:56 pm)Aaron21 wrote Yea 307 ran by Go North East

Newcastle to Benton Asda

(03 Jul 2022, 12:31 pm)Storx wrote Personally I'd look at areas separately and each operator have their patterns and if there's duplicates then who cares along as they're not serving the same areas.



Arriva Northumbria already have a pattern pretty much


1 - 2 - Blyth Local Services
X5 - X11 - Blyth / Cramlington Expresses
X14 - X18 - Morpeth Expresses
X20 - X22 - Ashington Expresses
30's - Ashington Local Services
40's - Great North Road Services
50's - North Tyneside Local Services
60+ - Unused bar 306/308.

imo. it doesn't really matter if there's a 57 in North Shields and a 57 in Heworth as they never overlap and are so far apart, it's better than having numbers like 354 etc. It only comes a problem when you have a GNE 1 and Stagecoach 1 serving the same stops in Newcastle.

The biggest problems is corridors like through Grangetown in Sunderland where you have a 2/2A/39/39A/60/61 doing pretty much the same route but with no connection at all. It's the easiest marketing ever to say there's 15 buses an hour along there but they don't if they're serious about the BSIP add the 22/23 aswell and it's 19 buses an hour.

(03 Jul 2022, 11:42 pm)wibblejunior wrote Seems to be mostly the same within Durham and Darlington.

1-19 - Darlington/Bishop Auckland area local services
2x - East Durham local services 
3x - unused
4x - West Durham local services
5x - services via Bowburn/Coxhoe
6x - Durham City local services
7x - ???
8x - Bishop Auckland local services
9x - Barnard Castle local services

The X12, X26/X27 and X66/X67 seem to be the main exceptions here.

(03 Jul 2022, 11:42 pm)wibblejunior wrote Seems to be mostly the same within Durham and Darlington.

1-19 - Darlington/Bishop Auckland area local services
2x - East Durham local services 
3x - unused
4x - West Durham local services
5x - services via Bowburn/Coxhoe
6x - Durham City local services
7x - ???
8x - Bishop Auckland local services
9x - Barnard Castle local services

The X12, X26/X27 and X66/X67 seem to be the main exceptions here.

(04 Jul 2022, 7:52 pm)Storx wrote Aye believe there's patterns down in Stockton aswell if I'm right between both Arriva and Stagecoach

3 - 5 - East Cleveland Services
8 - 20 - Middlesbrough / Thornaby Local Services
20's - Nunthorpe Services
30's - Billingham Services
40's - Unused
50's - Stockton Local Services
60's - Redcar Services
70's - Unused
80's - Guisborough Local Services
90's - Whitby Services

The 7, 39 and 61 are a bit of an outlier and the X66/X67 again but suppose they follow the road so makes sense. X12 is arguably a Middlesbrough service so kind of fits there.