1006 Callerton Parkway - Kingston Park TWM 4030
Impressed by the new NSA's on these now, much better than the previous effort. Not a lot else to say on this quick two stop hop.
1030 Kingston Park - City Centre X47 22413
Waited for the Tesco free bus to turn up but it didn't show (due 1020) so I jumped on the X47 into town. Fairly quiet mid morning journey, around half a bus load by the city. Nexus survey bloke on too. Asked me if I was going anywhere after the town... "err yeah but I don't know where yet".
1105 Newcastle - Chester-le-Street X21 9119
Casually hanging around on Pilgrim Street/Market Street junction when I spotted this in the distance coming in via the hole in the wall... so I walked round to Eldon Square to have a ride on it. Was ok on the towny stuff through Gateshead & Low Fell etc but it lacked a bit of power especially heading onto the A1, and the limited top speed (50mph presumably) seemed epically slow!
1145 Chester-le-Street - Stanley 8 5395
Well my first ride on one of GNE's new Streetlites (yeah I don't get out much these days...) - the new NSA LED screens look good, in a slightly weird position (to me) but I suppose everyone on the bus can see them so it makes sense! Selected the extra legroom seats at the emergency door position, which I immediately regretted! Even at this age they still suffer from the "Streetlite" disease of rattling emergency doors.... God knows what these are going to be like in 10 years time
1227 Stanley - Gateshead X30 6123
My first ride on an Omnidekka for a few years, last one I had was in Sheffield with Stagecoach. The bus was great, plenty of power for the hills (even though its mostly downhill into Gateshead, will have to try one the other way!) but I wasn't a fan of the seats, almost felt like the backrest was facing forwards it was that upright!
1320 Gateshead - Metrocentre X66 5391
Well this was your typical X66 journey - completely rammed with around 15 standing from what I could count... 9 were drivers though so I suppose that's not too bad. I don't suppose anyone is going to moan about standing on the 10 minute journey time and given the X66 isn't a massive revenue puller (given the amount of transfer passengers from other services) it makes sense to remove as much cost as possible from the operation. Despite all that, the Streetlites are still the wrong buy for a service like this. Christmas should be interesting.
1355 Metrocentre - Eldon Square 10B 60??
Standard B9 journey, not a lot to say!
1418 Haymarket - Cramlington 43 7493
Wandered aimlessly around Haymarket trying to decide what to do next, this former Redcar B7 was sat on the stand waiting to go to Cramlington so I hopped onboard. I still can't get over the fact they still smell new inside, considering their refurb was well over a year ago now?! Well looked after by Jesmond? It sounded in pretty good health. Can't help but wonder how tight the 43 is for time though, as this was getting abused! Probably more fun than a MAX journey on a geriatric Gemini though...
1457 Cramlington - Killingworth 52 1499
Was hoping for a B10 to turn up but no, standard Pulsar journey down to Killy.... Fairly quiet given it was a late afternoon journey on a route that doesn't really go anywhere massively useful. This Pulsar must have the slowest doors to close too, with the handbrake buzzer being an all too often sound. Annoys me when drivers just sit with the doors open with the buzzer going too... What sort of impression does that give?
1533 Killingworth - Four Lane Ends 62 19673
Well this E400 came in about 5 mins before departure time, and parked up over the far side to layover. Driver jumped out and I presumed was going to the loo. Came back with a handful of shopping and departed about 5 mins late. I assumed that would be fine as an afternoon journey going towards town is usually very slackly timed but this seemed to get to FLE with another 63 right behind so presumably still late...!?
1633 Four Lane Ends - Haymarket TWM 4068?
Well I fancied catching another E400 back to town, they always sound very worn and I'm going to spend a day just riding around the E400 routes as I've barely covered any of Stagecoach's city network, but after photographing a DFDS Trident (391) and Omnidekka (794) at the roundabout, I came back to find a 1 and 62 both pulling away. Facing another few minutes wait and knowing I wanted to get back to photograph the 808 at 1720 and some other peak departures, I opted for the quicker option. Fairly busy considering this was heading into town at this time, but a quick 10 min journey soon saw me at the very smart Haymarket station, hopefully in a few years they'll all be upgraded to this standard.
1740 Eldon Square - Callerton Parkway X77 22041
My journey back to Callerton was provided by a typically heavily (ab)used MAN on a typically Stagecoach-timed route that doesn't take account of the traffic, nevertheless it wasn't too bad and only got to Callerton around 4 mins late after a bit of spirited running should we say! Still a journey time of just 19 (scheduled 15) mins is competitive with the Metro point to point, its a shame it wasn't well used.... Though all peak buses were(perhaps understandably being summer holidays) quiet tonight. I stood around at Callerton hoping to photo 22667 heading the other way back to the city having worked out it would be on that journey but as of due time +10 mins it hadn't turned up so I gave up and headed back to the car and set off home.
Not sure when my next one will be but I hope you enjoyed my (rare) review! It ended up being a proper random selection of destinations, routes and buses but I think I managed a good mix and some places I never normally get to. Bit of route learning on the 43 sussing out new places so I feel confident going there maybe to change buses (Dudley etc)