(18 Apr 2022, 9:39 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote Thanks for that. Be interesting to see if the 808 service lasts much longer. Frustrating to miss it on Saturday because of the allocated minibus.

To be fair, the service isn't really intended for passengers who want to travel between Cowgate and Newcastle (or vice versa). So as long as the service is identifiable to people who might use the service to travel from Otterburn, Elsdon, Belsay, or any other village it may serve nowadays, into Newcastle; has enough seats to carry those passengers; and continues to receive subsidy from Northumberland County Council, it will continue to run.

(18 Apr 2022, 9:48 pm)MurdnunoC wrote To be fair, the service isn't really intended for passengers who want to travel between Cowgate and Newcastle (or vice versa). So as long as the service is identifiable to people who might use the service to travel from Otterburn, Elsdon, Belsay, or any other village it may serve nowadays, into Newcastle; has enough seats to carry those passengers; and continues to receive subsidy from Northumberland County Council, it will continue to run.

I agree, just frustrating for any intending passenger to miss the service because it wasn't particularly identifiable. The service is the cheapest into Newcastle at just £1, and having missed the bus I had to pay £4.10 on GNE and was too late into Newcastle so it was a waste. More passengers the better surely? For clarity other passengers, in Fenham, use the service not just me.

An old timetable for the 74 would be great if possible.

(18 Apr 2022, 9:32 pm)MurdnunoC wrote It's probably been operating in some format ever since long-distance bus services rose to prominence in the 1920s.

Here is a timetable from 1984;

I think the 808 is probably what’s left of the United / Eastern Scottish services 508 Newcastle - Edinburgh and 515 Whitley Bay - Newcastle - Glasgow, both via Jedburgh.

(19 Apr 2022, 8:16 am)RMF1254 wrote I think the 808 is probably what’s left of the United / Eastern Scottish services 508 Newcastle - Edinburgh and 515 Whitley Bay - Newcastle - Glasgow, both via Jedburgh.

The 808 existed alongside the 508 and 515, albeit without a specific service number, during the 1970s and most probably before that. The timetable below is the T. B. Vasey service circa 1976, but it is clear that both services are one and the same:



I have also included timetables for the the 508 and 515 from 1979 (easier to photograph). I'm sure I've already posted these elsewhere and was going to link to them but, alas, I couldn't find them:




As some of you will know, Whitley Bay was once a popular holiday destination, especially with people from the Glasgow hinterlands, and Lanarkshire, which is most probably why the 515 existed.

(19 Apr 2022, 9:18 am)MurdnunoC wrote The 808 existed alongside the 508 and 515, albeit without a specific service number, during the 1970s and most probably before that. The timetable below is the T. B. Vasey service circa 1976, but it is clear that both services are one and the same:



I have also included timetables for the the 508 and 515 from 1979 (easier to photograph). I'm sure I've already posted these elsewhere and was going to link to them but, alas, I couldn't find them:




As some of you will know, Whitley Bay was once a popular holiday destination, especially with people from the Glasgow hinterlands, and Lanarkshire, which is most probably why the 515 existed.

I had actually forgotten about the Vasey’s service, I remember seeing them in the Haymarket now. Northumberland CC numbered independents’ services in the 800s and some of them seemed to follow the major operators’ services - 508/808, 410/810 along the same routes.