(08 Jun 2020, 7:17 am)ifm001 wrote 594 was the competition service set up by Go Ahead Northern against the Calvary Coaches service 294.  The 594 though for some reason was operated by South Shields depot as opposed to the Washington depot. The Calvary 294 obviously came jnto operation initially when Go Ahead Northern had the major strike which stopped operation at all depots and lots of independent operators came into service on Northern routes so that the public were not left stranded.  Another service I can remember from this time would have been OK Travel operating the 194 and Favourite Services operated the old X5 from Newcastle but not sure if went all the way to Hartlepool, but seeing as Favourite operated in Hartlepool it may well have done.

Thanks very much for the info. Yeah I would have thought the 594 would have been operated by Washington depot, but now knowing it was operated by South Shields explains why they were on the white and blue nationals. Do you know if the 594 ran the exact same route as the Calvary Coaches 294 or did it serve any additional places? I can remember that major strike across the company too, and I seem to remember Busways operating some services too, such as the 185.