(17 Mar 2019, 12:06 am)JP6004 wrote The via points are visible at Whitley Bay but not at cobalt........perhaps they switch to display end point after via points have been travelled through?

I caught both 6101 and 6103 on the Coast Road and they both showed the displays as shown in the above post, I would therefore think 6103 has not had it's displays updated as of yet by Dan.

6101 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/adammalark...ed-public/

6103 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/adammalark...ed-public/

(17 Mar 2019, 12:11 am)TEN 6083 wrote Got a photo of 6101 at Cobalt Park on Friday and it had them



Here’s a close up from my photo


Sent from my iPhone XS using Tapatalk

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Got a photo of 6101 at Cobalt Park on Friday and it had them



Here’s a close up from my photo


Sent from my iPhone XS using Tapatalk

If it had not yet travelled through battle hill then I presume the display wouldn't of updated until it got there as that is the last via point. The 309 updated to the end destination as the final via point (cobalt) had been reached?

(17 Mar 2019, 12:09 am)Malarkey wrote As you referenced "screens", are you talking about the destination screens or the internal screens for the next stop announcements?

As for the NSA's I was on both 6101 and 6103 the other day and the NSA's were enabled with the lass from down south doing them.

Sorry, by screens I'd meant the destination displays. As for the internal screens though now the Cobalt's have the scrolling LED NSAs are the original flatscreens being removed to be used elsewhere or will they be kept to play live CCTV images & adverts?

Good to hear the NSAs are enabled. And as for the 'lass from down south', you mean Emma Hignett from County Durham. 

(17 Mar 2019, 10:13 am)ne14ne1 wrote Sorry, by screens I'd meant the destination displays. As for the internal screens though now the Cobalt's have the scrolling LED NSAs are the original flatscreens being removed to be used elsewhere or will they be kept to play live CCTV images & adverts?

Good to hear the NSAs are enabled. And as for the 'lass from down south', you mean Emma Hignett from County Durham. 

Well Durham is to the south of my current location   

Some of her pronunciations are questionable as to whether she is from up here although her bio does state she has a house in Teesdale, may of picked up on London accent while working for TFL.

The bigger screens internally should be for CCTV/Adverts.

Not sure if it was ever confirmed but when the new depot opens:

All of Stanley's OmniCitys will transfer to Gateshead, leaving the Volvo B9 to be allocated to the X70/X71.

The Consett-operated X30 service still needs to be allocated single-decks though, so stay tuned on that one...


Wonder which single deckers will be allocated to the X30?

(17 Mar 2019, 1:54 pm)Malarkey wrote Well Durham is to the south of my current location   

Some of her pronunciations are questionable as to whether she is from up here although her bio does state she has a house in Teesdale, may of picked up on London accent while working for TFL.

The bigger screens internally should be for CCTV/Adverts.

At least she'll be aware that that place on the coast isn't pronounced "see ham."

(17 Mar 2019, 3:02 pm)Michael wrote Not sure if it was ever confirmed but when the new depot opens:

All of Stanley's OmniCitys will transfer to Gateshead, leaving the Volvo B9 to be allocated to the X70/X71.

The Consett-operated X30 service still needs to be allocated single-decks though, so stay tuned on that one...


Wonder which single deckers will be allocated to the X30?

As far as we are aware, we will retain 3 (more likely 4) Omnicities. 3 of which will operate the main daytime X30s with a 4th operating the early morning 16 from Flint Hill to Durham and the afternoon 836 Tanfield School, this then runs into Newcastle to operate a X30 back to Stanley then light to Consett Depot. In regards to the 6 Toon Link liveried B9s only 5 are required for main daytime runs, however the 6th will operate the morning and afternoon 827, with the afternoon running light from Rowlands Gill to Newcastle to operate a service back to Consett.

(17 Mar 2019, 4:05 pm)Stanleyone wrote As far as we are aware, we will retain 3 (more likely 4) Omnicities. 3 of which will operate the main daytime X30s with a 4th operating the early morning 16 from Flint Hill to Durham and the afternoon 836 Tanfield School, this then runs into Newcastle to operate a X30 back to Stanley then light to Consett Depot. In regards to the 6 Toon Link liveried B9s only 5 are required for main daytime runs, however the 6th will operate the morning and afternoon 827, with the afternoon running light from Rowlands Gill to Newcastle to operate a service back to Consett.

Ah right, would seem the better choice, to keep some at the new Consett depot.


I forgot to put the link in where i seen that information:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgrah...otostream/ 

Info from Dan on his Flickr!

With less buses at Consett now, will some drivers be transferring to Riverside?

(17 Mar 2019, 5:11 pm)JM03 wrote With less buses at Consett now, will some drivers be transferring to Riverside?

some drivers will transfer temporarily.

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(17 Mar 2019, 4:22 pm)Michael wrote Ah right, would seem the better choice, to keep some at the new Consett depot.


I forgot to put the link in where i seen that information:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgrah...otostream/ 

Info from Dan on his Flickr!

Indeed the Omnicities will go eventually, however from opening Consett will have a number of Omnicities to operate the X30 (some X31s & X32s). I wouldn't think that the X30 will receive new buses, but personally i wouldn't rule out cascaded buses.

(17 Mar 2019, 6:59 pm)Stanleyone wrote some drivers will transfer temporarily.

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Indeed the Omnicities will go eventually, however from opening Consett will have a number of Omnicities to operate the X30 (some X31s & X32s). I wouldn't think that the X30 will receive new buses, but personally i wouldn't rule out cascaded buses.

Same, although, we don't know when the first of the buses will arrive, so Consett could have them for a while.

(15 Mar 2019, 9:22 am)misfit wrote 635 AD122 unusually on 516 service in South Shields.

Until the operation of the seasonal AD122 service re-commences, 635 is just a float vehicle. It has been in use at Deptford and Peterlee most recently, although transferred to Percy Main today.

(16 Mar 2019, 8:20 pm)ne14ne1 wrote How come they're returning to via points after they'd made all the destinations so clear and easy to read?

(16 Mar 2019, 9:03 pm)Dans_bus_photos wrote Probably because no one knew where the bus went apart from the end destination. I wonder if they'd seen Stagecoach's new destinations and decided to follow suit with the same layout.

(16 Mar 2019, 9:15 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote I don't know which destination method is best, clear end destination or via points. Stagecoach's new destinations? Stagecoach 63 yesterday had end destination City Centre in clear font like GNE, but otherwise the destinations have always looked the same as far as I have noticed.

(16 Mar 2019, 9:27 pm)Dans_bus_photos wrote Stagecoach have recently been changing their destinations so that the via points are static instead of scrolling, although I dont think Newcastle's have been fully updated yet. I think they all should have at least 1 via point so you get an indication of where the bus is going for example if your at Dalton Park and are not too familiar with the bus network around there and want to travel towards Sunderland without asking the driver how do you know the bus displaying 'Hebburn' is going through Sunderland to get there?

(16 Mar 2019, 9:46 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote Are GNE going back to via points then? Are they going to be static or scrolling?

(16 Mar 2019, 10:23 pm)ne14ne1 wrote I suppose theres pro's and con's with all styles.

Looking at bigger cities, New York City has via points on their buses but they flick every 1.5 seconds between the via points and a full screen destination which I quite like. As I've said before I would like to have seen this trialled here.  
Edinburgh & London however usually just have the final destination like GNE's clear full screen format, however it is more precise than just the name of the City which isn't very informative. Granted GNE buses with the new controller do change from Newcastle to the actual terminating point part way through the route, which is my personal preference over the newest style 2-line format with bold destination on the 1st line & two via points on the 2nd line.

As for the Stagecoach service saying 'City Centre' in full screen, I believe this is just for short services that terminate in Central Newcastle. The big clear screen with no scrolling points is so different to their usual displays, it should mean people spot it and not board expecting a cross-city service.

(16 Mar 2019, 11:50 pm)ne14ne1 wrote I noticed the lack of consistency on the refurbished Cobalt screens too. Whats that all about, plus how come their NSAs aren't enabled?

(17 Mar 2019, 12:06 am)JP6004 wrote The via points are visible at Whitley Bay but not at cobalt........perhaps they switch to display end point after via points have been travelled through?

Lots of discussion for me to catch up on here...

When Go North East were first experimenting with different styles, one style which was trialled was the static via point option with a larger terminal font (just using the basic Hanover fonts). A slightly revised version of this, just using the 'normal' font size for the top line, was used on the X9/X10 services and X84/X85 services until the start of this year.

I think I'd mooted the point of probably returning to via points at some point in time, when they were first all converted to the larger terminal point only style, about a year ago. Different people have different preferences, and I don't think there is a right or wrong answer as to what the best way is for these to be shown. Although there's advantages of showing via points on the destination display, there's also disadvantages in that it reduces the available space for the terminal point. Certainly based on my experiences, going back to the 9, I'm often asked (the equivalent of), "Is this the Hebburn bus?", even from passengers who don't travel all the way through to Hebburn, and that's because the bus stop literature and similar material all say Hebburn too.

For the avoidance of doubt, though, yes, Go North East will be bringing back via points over the next month or two. 5452 was the bus used for the opening event of Hownsgill (so had destinations updated for it), and 6101/02 had the new programme loaded on return from Blackburn. In all three instances, I forgot to put them back to 'normal' after loading the new programme. Not a major issue of course, just the programme is incomplete and has a few copy and paste jobs which need amending before it's publicly rolled out. 6103 was put back to normal and that's why this one doesn't show via points.

I wouldn't be overly keen on the option of showing a large terminal point on one slide and the via points on another, flicking every few seconds, as the best practice is to always have the terminal point shown on the display, and I do think that is important. Judging by many of the comments around the time of the 'January app sale' destination displays, I suspect that option wouldn't be popular with many others on the forum!

The Next Stop Announcements similarly are loaded on 6101/02 and probably not 6103, as if I recall correctly I put that one back to normal too. The announcements aren't yet complete, nor have they been tested, but all this will follow in due course when a sufficient number of the buses are back. This is when the new brand will be launched, and some marketing activity will take place. The bus-stop names will be on the internal LED signs and adverts, videos, etc, will be shown on the TFT monitors.

(17 Mar 2019, 6:59 pm)Stanleyone wrote Indeed the Omnicities will go eventually, however from opening Consett will have a number of Omnicities to operate the X30 (some X31s & X32s). I wouldn't think that the X30 will receive new buses, but personally i wouldn't rule out cascaded buses.

I wouldn't be so sure about that! 

Does any1 know what time demo 9080 53/54 due today at Market Street?

Also I do like via points and white LED displace on 309/310 however I dont like bit tweaked livery. I think East Yorkshire livery looks far better then GNE.

(18 Mar 2019, 2:56 am)Panasonic44 wrote Does any1 know what time demo 9080 53/54 due today at Market Street?

Also I do like via points and white LED displace on 309/310 however I dont like bit tweaked livery. I think East Yorkshire livery looks far better then GNE.

9080 was returned to ADL on Friday; sorry!

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

(18 Mar 2019, 2:56 am)Panasonic44 wrote Does any1 know what time demo 9080 53/54 due today at Market Street?

Also I do like via points and white LED displace on 309/310 however I dont like bit tweaked livery. I think East Yorkshire livery looks far better then GNE.

9080 was returned to ADL on Friday; sorry!

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

Ok thanks for info Dan.

Are there any plans for the 74 to get next stop announcements?

I know it’s off topic but wouldn’t it be a good idea to set a discord server up for NEB?

Thought they might of replaced all the orange L.E.D displays with white ones

Looking at the GNE fleet page, it has ex EYMS 885 (X594 EGK) in open top format acquired. Interesting.

(19 Mar 2019, 3:50 pm)Stanleyone wrote Looking at the GNE fleet page, it has ex EYMS 885 (X594 EGK) in open top format acquired. Interesting.

Very interesting seeing as Stagecoach are about to launch open top route along the North Tyne Coast.

Wonder if the 516 could be taken back commercially and become a South Tyne open top route to counteract Stagecoaches move. (wishful thinking I know)

(19 Mar 2019, 3:50 pm)Stanleyone wrote Looking at the GNE fleet page, it has ex EYMS 885 (X594 EGK) in open top format acquired. Interesting.

Its down as being in the new fleet livery aswell according to the fleet disposition.

(19 Mar 2019, 6:51 pm)Arcticrossy92 wrote Its down as being in the new fleet livery aswell according to the fleet disposition.

I wonder if they've converted it back to be a double decker for Scholars then.

(19 Mar 2019, 8:24 pm)Malarkey wrote I wonder if they've converted it back to be a double decker for Scholars then.

If its for a open top service, maybe the brand will be put over the cooperate livery?, sure i read on Twitter, that would be done for future brands.

(19 Mar 2019, 8:33 pm)Michael wrote If its for a open top service, maybe the brand will be put over the cooperate livery?, sure i read on Twitter, that would be done for future brands.

I don't think that such a service would be relegated to just having branding added on-top of the standard RYB fleet livery. It would need to be treated the same as any other branded services that aren't the 9 or 49 imo.


Still in the early stages so could well change my thoughts, but it being labelled as only being in the standard livery suggests that it won't see that much use. Perhaps some special events such as the Great North Run (which EY usually send open tops up for anyway so some cost cutting there) and the odd day in mainstream service when the weather is nice.

(19 Mar 2019, 9:01 pm)S813 FVK wrote I don't think that such a service would be relegated to just having branding added on-top of the standard RYB fleet livery. It would need to be treated the same as any other branded services that aren't the 9 or 49 imo.


Still in the early stages so could well change my thoughts, but it being labelled as only being in the standard livery suggests that it won't see that much use. Perhaps some special events such as the Great North Run (which EY usually send open tops up for anyway so some cost cutting there) and the odd day in mainstream service when the weather is nice.

Don't a couple of the Omnidekkas have a removable roof? 
Would have thought it would have made sense using something from the existing fleet, rather than aquire something from another division. 

Interesting move nonetheless, especially when SNE are working on their own service on North Tyneside. 

I hope last summers weather wasn't a flash in the pan!

3995 / 3996 did have removeable roofs, however their bodies weren't too good when the roof was removed, so the roofs are left on all the time.

There is some possibilities that they might be converting more in house. But if it's a one bus thing, well they might be looking at introducing open top tours similar to Go South Coast / Southern Vectis.

Examples (some good and some prob bad)
Hexham to Kielder
Hexham to Corbridge via Hadrians Wall
Newcastle - Quayside - Angel of the North
Sunderland to South Shields
Derwent Valley route Metrocentre to Consett (Get to see the Red Kite birds better)

(17 Mar 2019, 3:02 pm)Michael wrote Not sure if it was ever confirmed but when the new depot opens:

“All of Stanley's OmniCitys will transfer to Gateshead, leaving the Volvo B9 to be allocated to the X70/X71.

The Consett-operated X30 service still needs to be allocated single-decks though, so stay tuned on that one...”

Wonder which single deckers will be allocated to the X30?

I’ve relegated myself away from speculation recently but have come up with some sort of solution to the X30 ‘issue’.

Taking the PVR for the 6/X31 at 9 as it is now and attaching a spare leaves the 4 that would have otherwise remained at Stanley/Consett for the X30 and the ‘misc’ board.

Alongside the Omnicitys, the only other full sized single decks currently allocated to Stanley are Streetlites. From a ‘fleet standardisation’ perspective, would it perhaps make sense to do a swap of 4 Omnicitys for the 4 X66 Streetlites?

I see this as a slightly bizarre but plausable idea, as well as a long term solution. Anything that would just be temporary would seem a bit strange and they may aswell just leave the 4 Omnis where they are until the main replacements are ready.

Maybe it’s just convenient numbers leading me up the garden path. We’ll find out soon enough. 

(20 Mar 2019, 1:12 am)S813 FVK wrote I’ve relegated myself away from speculation recently but have come up with some sort of solution to the X30 ‘issue’.

Taking the PVR for the 6/X31 at 9 as it is now and attaching a spare leaves the 4 that would have otherwise remained at Stanley/Consett for the X30 and the ‘misc’ board.

Alongside the Omnicitys, the only other full sized single decks currently allocated to Stanley are Streetlites. From a ‘fleet standardisation’ perspective, would it perhaps make sense to do a swap of 4 Omnicitys for the 4 X66 Streetlites?

I see this as a slightly bizarre but plausable idea, as well as a long term solution. Anything that would just be temporary would seem a bit strange and they may aswell just leave the 4 Omnis where they are until the main replacements are ready.

Maybe it’s just convenient numbers leading me up the garden path. We’ll find out soon enough. 

Maybe, only other bus is Scania L94's or even the duel door B9's.



The changes for 7th April, haven't appeared on the GNE site yet either.

Re: open topper. Martijn was involved in the introduction of an open topper at Reading Buses, as a private hire/events function. Maybe the same idea has been brought to GNE.