(17 Feb 2020, 9:58 pm)Dan wrote No, you’d need to replace the indiGo logo to do this and it’d look pretty naff having roadstripes separating the same colour.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is very true, didnt know if they would have rear end repainted like some other vehicles. Does look a bit plain now, but sure once full refresh occurs, will look a lot better

(17 Feb 2020, 10:09 pm)JP6004 wrote This is very true, didnt know if they would have rear end repainted like some other vehicles. Does look a bit plain now, but sure once full refresh occurs, will look a lot better

Bit too much going on at the moment to have unnecessary repaints - as soon as the Citaros at Riverside are painted, need to move onto other repaints to coincide with the delivery of the new vehicles for Consett and Washington which will lead to a multitude of buses moving around and getting repainted and rebranded.

These little amends keep the indiGos going a little bit longer, makes them a bit more generic so can be swapped around if necessary, and tidies them up a bit in the process.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

(17 Feb 2020, 10:13 pm)Dan wrote Bit too much going on at the moment to have unnecessary repaints - as soon as the Citaros at Riverside are painted, need to move onto other repaints to coincide with the delivery of the new vehicles for Consett and Washington which will lead to a multitude of buses moving around and getting repainted and rebranded.

These little amends keep the indiGos going a little bit longer, makes them a bit more generic so can be swapped around if necessary, and tidies them up a bit in the process.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ah yes totally understand. And can understand 56 being pushed back later in year. But the solos are only 4yo this year and other vehicles need repaint more urgently.

No doubt the 4 citaros will go in afterwards....

(17 Feb 2020, 10:18 pm)JP6004 wrote Ah yes totally understand. And can understand 56 being pushed back later in year. But the solos are only 4yo this year and other vehicles need repaint more urgently.

No doubt the 4 citaros will go in afterwards....

I’d be inclined to put the Connections4 Citaros in the “not urgent” pile too, I’m afraid... would have been nice to re-brand indiGo and Connections4 along with Red Arrows, but I think poor Saltmeadows have their work cut out for the next few months.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

(17 Feb 2020, 9:55 pm)TEN 6083 wrote https://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/crim...ot-1768122


Yobs smash out bus window with passengers onboard as trouble flares at town's hotspot.

One of the X-lines Solos needs new windows, little they are


Sent from my iPhone XS using Tapatalk

Disgraceful. This has been going on for over two years now, yet the most the police have done is send a few tweets. They're having the p*** taken out of them by a bunch of kids.

It's either going to take someone to be badly injured, or for the operator to refuse to serve, before anything is done about it


Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

To be honest, the Houghton and Hetton areas are the areas I least like to visit when the kids are off school or outside school times.

(17 Feb 2020, 10:24 pm)Dan wrote I’d be inclined to put the Connections4 Citaros in the “not urgent” pile too, I’m afraid... would have been nice to re-brand indiGo and Connections4 along with Red Arrows, but I think poor Saltmeadows have their work cut out for the next few months.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Definitely, they have a lot to get through with as you say the repaints coinciding with 46 new deckers and the yutongs after that

---

(17 Feb 2020, 11:02 pm)Rapidsnap wrote To be honest, the Houghton and Hetton areas are the areas I least like to visit when the kids are off school or outside school times.

I think houghton is quite quaint, specially round the church. Shame about some of the people that live there

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the surroundings in general, it's just the "little darlings" that infest the area.

Is 9069 finishing up it’s loan this week ?


Sent from my iPhone XS using Tapatalk

https://twitter.com/martijngne/status/12...51618?s=21


Sent from my iPhone XS using Tapatalk

(18 Feb 2020, 12:13 am)Rapidsnap wrote Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the surroundings in general, it's just the "little darlings" that infest the area.

Lived in Hetton quite happily for a while, years back, but the atmosphere in the two town centres has definitely changed for the worse, since then. I hate the almost constant pub overspill in Houghton. And last time we caught the 71, there, a fire engine pulled up because there was a bin fire in the park behind the bus stop. A couple of weeks previously, all the windows were smashed in that same bus stop (though fram is no stranger to vandalised bus shelters, either and Thornley had most of its shelters replaced with ones with metal mesh, when it had similar ASB issues, years back. Arriva did refuse to run there in the evenings, for a while.)

And it looks like a second night of the attacks is happening, as an X20 has been withdrawn, this evening after "an incident" https://twitter.com/gonortheast/status/1...29249?s=20

So much for the police patrols that are supposed to be happening.

(18 Feb 2020, 8:44 pm)BusLoverMum wrote And it looks like a second night of the attacks is happening, as an X20 has been withdrawn, this evening after "an incident" https://twitter.com/gonortheast/status/1...29249?s=20

So much for the police patrols that are supposed to be happening.

To be fair, that could be anything. 

As far as Houghton on a night goes, it's been dodgy for years and that was before they downgraded the police station to traffic ops. 

I remember bother there when I was waiting for a bus with some mates.
It was so long ago, my cream moleskin jeans, baggy shirt and floppy curtain haircut were in fashion!

Edit: https://twitter.com/NPSunderland/status/...75143?s=19 dispersal order in place.

(18 Feb 2020, 8:44 pm)BusLoverMum wrote And it looks like a second night of the attacks is happening, as an X20 has been withdrawn, this evening after "an incident" https://twitter.com/gonortheast/status/1...29249?s=20

So much for the police patrols that are supposed to be happening.

Probably wasn't Houghton for once last night, there was 2 Police vehicles parked there pretty much all evening.

https://twitter.com/martijngne/status/12...95521?s=21


Sent from my iPhone XS using Tapatalk

Love how active the chap is on twitter.

(19 Feb 2020, 12:26 pm)TEN 6083 wrote https://twitter.com/martijngne/status/12...95521?s=21


Sent from my iPhone XS using Tapatalk

Go North East: 7108 / A10EYC by Daniel Graham, on Flickr

https://twitter.com/martijngne/status/12...23494?s=21


Sent from my iPhone XS using Tapatalk

(20 Feb 2020, 4:54 pm)TEN 6083 wrote https://twitter.com/martijngne/status/12...23494?s=21


Sent from my iPhone XS using Tapatalk

Never knew AG ended up as part of EY. Always associated it with the PTE and Busways. 

There's some interesting comments on this Flickr image: 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fray_bentos/4977515184

I've kept quiet on these liveries on purpose. 
I like them, I think they've done a good job doing them and from an enthusiasts perspective, I think it's a cracking idea. 
There's a but coming...

But... 
I don't get it from a non enthusiasts point of view. 
There's no obvious ties to GNE and if I was a passenger getting on to a rail replacement, I'd just think I was getting on an independent operators coach. 
There's no obvious reason to me, why this is being done.

9069 and 6007 had a coming together in Eldon Sq bus stn this afternoon

Dan confirmed on Twitter that 3943 has been re-registered as NK05GZR, with 7110 re-registered as FCU190

Alos confirmed 3943 will be put in GNE livery and will be used on School contracts.

https://twitter.com/DanGrahamGNE/status/...7372453895

(20 Feb 2020, 5:21 pm)Coppercap40 wrote 9069 and 6007 had a coming together in Eldon Sq bus stn this afternoon

As in a crash? Was anyone fine and is 9069 fine and repairable as I had it this morning and it was amazing.

(20 Feb 2020, 5:04 pm)Andreos1 wrote There's no obvious reason to me, why this is being done.

I'd have to agree with you on this one - I'd consider myself an enthusiast and even I  don't get it...

(20 Feb 2020, 5:21 pm)Coppercap40 wrote 9069 and 6007 had a coming together in Eldon Sq bus stn this afternoon

9069 is the Panther, isn't it? I reckon there'll be a tea and no biscuits meeting after this, eh?

(20 Feb 2020, 5:04 pm)Andreos1 wrote Never knew AG ended up as part of EY. Always associated it with the PTE and Busways. 

There's some interesting comments on this Flickr image: 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fray_bentos/4977515184

I've kept quiet on these liveries on purpose. 
I like them, I think they've done a good job doing them and from an enthusiasts perspective, I think it's a cracking idea. 
There's a but coming...

But... 
I don't get it from a non enthusiasts point of view. 
There's no obvious ties to GNE and if I was a passenger getting on to a rail replacement, I'd just think I was getting on an independent operators coach. 
There's no obvious reason to me, why this is being done.

Does there need to be a point or reason? It gives them an opportunity to be a bit more creative than they can on their usual vehicles, while paying homage to brands of the past.
At the end of the day, their coach operations are just something they do on the side, there doesn't need to be brand recognition the same way they do with public services.

(21 Feb 2020, 3:15 am)streetdeckfan wrote Does there need to be a point or reason? It gives them an opportunity to be a bit more creative than they can on their usual vehicles, while paying homage to brands of the past.
At the end of the day, their coach operations are just something they do on the side, there doesn't need to be brand recognition the same way they do with public services.

Of course there does. 
You just don't sign off and approve a design, paint job and associated costs without having a business case (justification and reasoning included) behind it.
Particularly when they're in the middle of a re-branding project, which sees vehicles floating around in a mixture of identies.

(21 Feb 2020, 10:34 am)Andreos1 wrote Of course there does. 
You just don't sign off and approve a design, paint job and associated costs without having a business case (justification and reasoning included) behind it.
Particularly when they're in the middle of a re-branding project, which sees vehicles floating around in a mixture of identies.

Obviously from that perspective there needs to be a reason, but I was responding from more of the perspective of the non-enthusiast that you were mentioning.
I do agree with your point about the timing of the re-paints, although with the StreetDeck delay I'd imagine there could be some spare slots as vehicles may not be able to be off the road long enough for a repaint!

These coaches look so much better than before, fresh, clean and i bet by the end of the weekend pictures from enthusiasts will be all over the web, clicks to northerncoaching.co.uk will probably get some numbers, it may be a gimmick but it is different, and looks a lot better than tatty looking white coaches where you can see where the nat ex vinyls used to be

(21 Feb 2020, 10:53 am)N1cholas wrote These coaches look so much better than before, fresh, clean and i bet by the end of the weekend pictures from enthusiasts will be all over the web, clicks to northerncoaching.co.uk will probably get some numbers, it may be a gimmick but it is different, and looks a lot better than tatty looking white coaches where you can see where the nat ex vinyls used to be

I agree they look good. Think I said as much in my original post. 

However, I still don't get the reasoning behind it though.
There will be one and I'm happy to hear what it is, but I'd be very surprised if they're doing it simply to attract enthusiasts and their cameras.

When the website is launched (I presume that's the plan, with having the address set up), it may all become clearer.

Are GNE having a lot more breakdowns and 'incidents' on board than usual, or their social media are actually starting to post updates when services aren't running now?

(21 Feb 2020, 1:23 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Are GNE having a lot more breakdowns and 'incidents' on board than usual, or their social media are actually starting to post updates when services aren't running now?

Think they're letting people know more now than before, because at point they only ever mentioned the X9/X10 breakdowns.