(26 Apr 2023, 6:02 pm)Dans_bus_photos wrote Does anyone know why Walkergate now have 8 E200s for a PVR of 5. I assumed 37314 transferring over was to replace 36468? Leaving Walkergate with 37312,37314-19

36468 and 36470 should have been transferred to South Shields. 37312 was supposed to go back to Slatyford but is still there as cover (appropriate or otherwise) for 12068/9

(26 Apr 2023, 3:25 pm)Lollist wrote Why more trainers we have thousands

There's a shortage of training buses with Newcastle regularly having to borrow them from Sunderland and Teesside.

(26 Apr 2023, 7:58 pm)54APhotography wrote 36468 and 36470 should have been transferred to South Shields. 37312 was supposed to go back to Slatyford but is still there as cover (appropriate or otherwise) for 12068/9

Any idea what’s up with 12068&69? Been off the road since October

Are Stockton buses 27159 ' 27178 going to Newcastle depot or staying at Stockton depot?

(28 Apr 2023, 12:41 am)glen wrote Are Stockton buses 27159 ' 27178 going to Newcastle depot  or staying at Stockton depot?

I don’t think they’re all going to Newcastle. They should receive another soon as 22890 is currently in for repaint then heading to Stockton and they might get one for 22581 if that gets repaired and sent to Stockton as well.

Thanks for info mate

(13 Apr 2023, 5:47 pm)cbma06 wrote On a Facebook group page today it was mentioned “Stagecoach South Shields have received MAN E200 39711 NK58 AGV and 39715 NK58 AHA. These are to replace ADL E200 37313 SN65 OJD and 37314 SN65 ZBO.”


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Is 39726 permanant in Hartlepool?

(28 Apr 2023, 12:47 pm)AlexRPlays wrote Is 39726 permanant in Hartlepool?

No just on loan it even says that it’s on loan on the side window next to the doors.  It’s hardly an improvement either as it worse than some of the ones they scrapped with even less seats than the 08 plates even though it’s newer.

22341 NK55 AHZ is the latest ALX300 to arrive at Sunderland for repaint. It’s nice to see these getting repainted especially the older 55 plates, should hopefully be around for a good few more years.

(29 Apr 2023, 6:29 pm)ReDemPTiion wrote 22341 NK55 AHZ is the latest ALX300 to arrive at Sunderland for repaint. It’s nice to see these getting repainted especially the older 55 plates, should hopefully be around for a good few more years.

I’m still shocked that Stagecoach are repainting them - for the very reason that it suggests they’re going to stick around for a while longer.

Surely there must be something within the Stagecoach empire to replace them, with the amount of new buses due this year and/or service reductions, if/when BRG ends.


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(30 Apr 2023, 5:25 am)Dan wrote I’m still shocked that Stagecoach are repainting them - for the very reason that it suggests they’re going to stick around for a while longer.

Surely there must be something within the Stagecoach empire to replace them, with the amount of new buses due this year and/or service reductions, if/when BRG ends.


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Bit of an odd one this. The two remaining 55 plates aren't safe at all, there are more E300's to come and the exchanges are complete so its one ALX gone at a time. It arrived courtesy of Alpha, depends what went bang..

(22 Apr 2023, 12:07 pm)col87 wrote It’s the same with Teesbay retail park if they had a service actually going into it I reckon it could do well.

At the moment especially this time of year it’s quite funny how both the costal areas where people will want to go to only has a single service yet all all services apart from the 1 go to Owton Manor. You can’t get to Seaton from Owton Manor again it means getting a bus to the town then trying to connect with the 1. You can’t even get a bus between Seaton and the Headland anymore either because again getting the 1 to the town and then getting the 7.

The point about a service between Hartlepool and North Tees Hospital. Yes actually that is mostly Stagecoach fault because them and Arriva decided to carve areas up between themselves with an agreement they wouldn’t compete in each others areas which is why Arriva won’t do a service even though it’s not difficult to do one but either having it as a Via point as an additional service to Stockton or a proper service between both hospitals.

(23 Apr 2023, 12:45 pm)col87 wrote Like I put in the last post all of them the 1 3/3A 6 and 7 are all commercial. 

the 20 980 and UTC are all contract services.  All Sunday and Evening services are commercial as well hence they are not many services at all after 6:30 an hourly service 1 a split service 7 from Owton Manor and half a service 6 been the only services on an evening using a total of about 5-6 buses if that.

(23 Apr 2023, 12:47 pm)tyresmoke wrote After 8pm you’re left with just 4 buses out, 3 on the 6/7 and one running service 1


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Not sure which part of Tees Bay Retail Park your suggesting the buses should go but I certainly wouldn't fancy turning a bus around in that car park.

Personally I would prefer a larger network of lower frequency routes, altough I'm not sure that would work in Hartlepool as I've found the majority of customers in the town to be incredibly dimwitted so the current position of a handful of high frequency routes to keep things simple is probably the better option. If Hartlepool had the network we have here at Gainsborough customers heads would probably explode!

I could be wrong but I believe UTC is the only contract they have.

Tyresmoke is indeed correct. There are 25 buses on the road Monday - Saturday days, 9 on Sunday days and 4 every evening. At least 2 of the Monday to Friday evening drivers will be the same every night. I was one of them for my final 6 months there.

(30 Apr 2023, 8:23 am)tcts24 wrote Not sure which part of Tees Bay Retail Park your suggesting the buses should go but I certainly wouldn't fancy turning a bus around in that car park.

Personally I would prefer a larger network of lower frequency routes, altough I'm not sure that would work in Hartlepool as I've found the majority of customers in the town to be incredibly dimwitted so the current position of a handful of high frequency routes to keep things simple is probably the better option. If Hartlepool had the network we have here at Gainsborough customers heads would probably explode!

I could be wrong but I believe UTC is the only contract they have.

Tyresmoke is indeed correct. There are 25 buses on the road Monday - Saturday days, 9 on Sunday days and 4 every evening. At least 2 of the Monday to Friday evening drivers will be the same every night. I was one of them for my final 6 months there.

In fairness Teesbay wouldn't be too bad, especially if they created a new entrance near B&M to get into the car park. It would be near identical to Morton Park in Darlington but even without change it doesn't seem hard to loop around the central units (Card Factory / Age UK / the Cafe).

(30 Apr 2023, 7:37 am)54APhotography wrote Bit of an odd one this. The two remaining 55 plates aren't safe at all, there are more E300's to come and the exchanges are complete so its one ALX gone at a time. It arrived courtesy of Alpha, depends what went bang..

i think though that some of the early E300s like the Scottish 08 ones and some of the 09 ones, especially ones that weren't re engined like the NK09 batch aren't in a great condition, i know one of the NK09 ones at the back of the bus you could see parts of the road through the hatch in the floor, to be honest it looked like it had been put back on in a hurry so that could explain it

(30 Apr 2023, 9:38 am)Storx wrote In fairness Teesbay wouldn't be too bad, especially if they created a new entrance near B&M to get into the car park. It would be near identical to Morton Park in Darlington but even without change it doesn't seem hard to loop around the central units (Card Factory / Age UK / the Cafe).

For the new entrance would you remove the footpath from the main road or fill in the pond thingy to make way for it?
Car parks in general tend to have narrow roads and tight bends because strangely enough they're designed for cars. I've took a bus up to Tesco main entrance late at night when the car park is relatively empty. I'm not sure I'd have managed it at peak time and I wouldn't recomend taking anything bigger than a LWB Transit around Tees Bay either.

(30 Apr 2023, 11:41 am)tcts24 wrote For the new entrance would you remove the footpath from the main road or fill in the pond thingy to make way for it?
Car parks in general tend to have narrow roads and tight bends because strangely enough they're designed for cars. I've took a bus up to Tesco main entrance late at night when the car park is relatively empty. I'm not sure I'd have managed it at peak time and I wouldn't recomend taking anything bigger than a LWB Transit around Tees Bay either.

Like this from the service road. Should be more than enough space to get around (yellow route), it's virtually identical to Morton Park in Darlington.



Agreed though about car parks usually though but the HGV's can get into Burger King there so bar the one corner next to B&M everything else should be fine. Those shops badly need connecting to the rest of the centre anyway as they're just plopped in the middle of the car park with no real safe way to walk there.

(30 Apr 2023, 7:37 am)54APhotography wrote Bit of an odd one this. The two remaining 55 plates aren't safe at all, there are more E300's to come and the exchanges are complete so its one ALX gone at a time. It arrived courtesy of Alpha, depends what went bang..

Wondering if it is down to reliability having had their fingers burnt multiple times now with cascaded crap from Scotland, even though newer than the exiting vehicles many have been much less reliable.  Similar to what happened with replacing the elderly Darts and now scrabbling around to find remaining examples to replace the worse but newer alternatives.  Of course the answer is investment in the fleet rather than finding the least bad life expired stock to chuck at the network outside of Newcastle.

(30 Apr 2023, 4:33 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote Wondering if it is down to reliability having had their fingers burnt multiple times now with cascaded crap from Scotland, even though newer than the exiting vehicles many have been much less reliable.  Similar to what happened with replacing the elderly Darts and now scrabbling around to find remaining examples to replace the worse but newer alternatives.  Of course the answer is investment in the fleet rather than finding the least bad life expired stock to chuck at the network outside of Newcastle.

I've said this for a while, it happened with the 08 E300s, and the kinetics where they got rid of 03 plate ALX300s for newer stock which turned out to be abit crap, i think the Scottish E300s after a lot of work turned out ok.

there needs to be a half decent settling down period where the drivers and engineers get used to "newer" vehicles ironing out any kinks and keep ahold of the displaced vehicles for a time incase of any issues. for example the old rule of 3s in the military where 1 vehicles is active, the next one is having routine maintenance and upkeep, maybe repainting etc and the other is in deep maintenance or VOR etc

(30 Apr 2023, 6:02 pm)toward6931 wrote I've said this for a while, it happened with the 08 E300s, and the kinetics where they got rid of 03 plate ALX300s for newer stock which turned out to be abit crap, i think the Scottish E300s after a lot of work turned out ok.

there needs to be a half decent settling down period where the drivers and engineers get used to "newer" vehicles ironing out any kinks and keep ahold of the displaced vehicles for a time incase of any issues. for example the old rule of 3s in the military where 1 vehicles is active, the next one is having routine maintenance and upkeep, maybe repainting etc and the other is in deep maintenance or VOR etc

Personally I think there might be big problems with these. Unless they've had money spent on them very recently they're complete sheds.

They've been wrecked doing totally inappropriate bus routes in the Highlands like the X99 which have now rightfully been converted back to coach operation using the ex City Link vehicles which withdrew these I believe.

Last time I was up there we were following one of them and it was struggling doing 40 mph and belching fumes out. One of the SV62 ones I believe.

(30 Apr 2023, 6:20 pm)Storx wrote Personally I think there might be big problems with these. Unless they've had money spent on them very recently they're complete sheds.

They've been wrecked doing totally inappropriate bus routes in the Highlands like the X99 which have now rightfully been converted back to coach operation using the ex City Link vehicles which withdrew these I believe.

Last time I was up there we were following one of them and it was struggling doing 40 mph and belching fumes out. One of the SV62 ones I believe.

27913 is the dog, very slow and heavy feeling. 27796 & 27914 seem ok. Shields 27631/2 are not the best but not taxed on the town circulars. Understand a couple that went to Stockton ex Highlands are pretty bad as well.

(01 May 2023, 9:10 am)54APhotography wrote 27913 is the dog, very slow and heavy feeling. 27796 & 27914 seem ok. Shields 27631/2 are not the best but not taxed on the town circulars. Understand a couple that went to Stockton ex Highlands are pretty bad as well.

Surprised with that thought 27913 would be one of the better ones as I believe it spent most of it's life on the Inverness locals unlike 27796 which done Aberdeen longer routes then ended up at Wick which kills things. There's some pictures of some rather sad looking 09 MAN E300's a few year back waiting for scrap up there.

Ironically, the Scottish 300s are getting generally positive reviews from drivers (ie they're better than the native ones) - at least the Wheatsheaf ones are, only trouble is there's no buggy space. I'm yet to try one, though.

Does anyone know if 22344 is actually getting a new engine from (apparently) 39706? I don’t see it actually being true with how old the bus is but then again 22428 got a replacement engine.

News from a driver last night

Walkergate are receiving 25 brand new buses to replace the Hybrid (currently allocated to the 1 & 12)

The Hybrid will move to Sunderland to replace the gas buses which are leaving.

This came from a driver I'm friends with so dk how true it would be haha. But I did read that they were due 11 new buses but seems a lot more are coming to replace the Hybrids

(04 May 2023, 9:20 am)Busu284 wrote News from a driver last night

Walkergate are receiving 25 brand new buses to replace the Hybrid (currently allocated to the 1 & 12)

The Hybrid will move to Sunderland to replace the gas buses which are leaving.

This came from a driver I'm friends with so dk how true it would be haha. But I did read that they were due 11 new buses but seems a lot more are coming to replace the Hybrids

The hybrids need scrapped tbh it’s not much of an upgrade for Sunderland replacing the gas buses with those (if it’s true) they aren’t as nice as they used to be they are getting withdrawn all over the country at the moment. 

Would be nice to see Slatyford get some new buses to replace the 24***’s as they’re 09 plate

[quote="stagecoachfan" pid='294433' dateline='1681290614']
info received from British Bus Publishing:

* With numbers running out of range for some types of buses, Stagecoach has decided to renumber most electric and hybrid vehicles. This 8-page supplement updates the 2023 Stagecoach Bus Handbook to reflect these changes. The first digit of the electric and hybrid buses is now 6xxxx for Midi buses, 7xxxx for Single-decks and 8xxxx for Double-decks. Minibuses and Coaches retain their current ranges. In addition, with this attractive supplement, we have taken the opportunity to update the lists of vehicles on order. *

As nobody has picked up on this, I have decided to do so. The updated list of vehicles on order in the 8-page supplement issued by British Bus Publishing includes 25 ADL E40D double-deckers for Walkergate, 11607 - 11620 and 11770 - 11780. It was mentioned on another enthusiast website a couple of months ago that Torquay would not be getting any new double-deckers. Torquay should have received 11607 - 11628 but 11621 - 11628 are shown as heading to Rock Ferry. Whether Walkergate gets 25 new double-deckers is a moot point as Stagecoach's plans seem to change by the minute so we will have to see what transpires. Incidentally, this supplement does not mention any electric vehicles for Sunderland so presumably the type of vehicle and fleet numbers had not been decided when this supplement went to press a month ago.

(01 May 2023, 9:10 am)54APhotography wrote 27913 is the dog, very slow and heavy feeling. 27796 & 27914 seem ok. Shields 27631/2 are not the best but not taxed on the town circulars. Understand a couple that went to Stockton ex Highlands are pretty bad as well.

27805 is a fairly decent bus to ride on but 27812 isn’t very impressive.

(01 May 2023, 10:44 am)F114TML wrote Ironically, the Scottish 300s are getting generally positive reviews from drivers (ie they're better than the native ones) - at least the Wheatsheaf ones are, only trouble is there's no buggy space. I'm yet to try one, though.

Any idea what's wrong with some the native ones? 27729/31/32/35 have all been off the road for several weeks

27809 is it service yet at Stockton

(04 May 2023, 9:20 am)Busu284 wrote News from a driver last night

Walkergate are receiving 25 brand new buses to replace the Hybrid (currently allocated to the 1 & 12)

The Hybrid will move to Sunderland to replace the gas buses which are leaving.

This came from a driver I'm friends with so dk how true it would be haha. But I did read that they were due 11 new buses but seems a lot more are coming to replace the Hybrids

I hope there is truth in this as SNE is struggling and does deserve more,

don't know about transferring the hybrids to Sunderland to release gas buses, some of them don't seem in good condition and its a completely new vehicle type for engineering staff to get to learn,

if it was me I would have done the following,

the first ten new buses into service replace ten of walkergate/Newcastle  single decks (09 plates only, anything newer should go to slatyford and stay in Newcastle) to Sunderland, im sure most of these are "spare" vehicles owing to the reliability of the hybrids. keeping a twenty percent safety margin at Sunderland and only getting rid of the 8 worst of the 2013 E300s so that they can be stripped down to support the other gas buses.in addition I would use the opportunity to remove 5 of the hybrids from service ideally vehicles that are either long term VOR or deemed too unecomical to repair

the next ten vehicles i would move the eldest of the older E400s to slatyford. Again using a 20 percent safety margin the first 5 i would put in service and use them displace 4 more single decks  to Sunderland, the second batch of 5 i would use to displace the 5 eldest E400s to Sunderland again displacing 4 more gasbuses,

the last 5 vehicles i would use as "spares" so that every next time a hybrid goes really t*ts up one of these spare vehicles can take its place and that vehicle can be stripped for spares

all in all with this model 16 of the worst of gas buses are cannibalised  for parts and scrapped to keep the hopefully better examples on the road that little bit longer i think that would 24 gas buses remaining , 10 of the worst hybrids have the same treatment leaving 16 remaining, slatyford will have gained 1 net vehicle and Sunderland will have gained 3

i know sadly this does not sort out anything for hartlepool or Stockton however once the electric deliveries start next year for oxford and stockport i can imagine more vehicles will be released that could sort out some more issues