We all have a feelings about some of the 'improvements' so far but thought there's no where to discuss suggestions which actually would be useful with severe gaps.

Some suggestions, mostly in Durham, from me:

1: Crook terminator extended to Stanhope via 101 route, 101 scrapped
6: Extended to Barnard Castle from Cockfield hourly, 85 scrapped
25/725: Merged to restore old route.
56: Upped to 2 BPH throughout and Sunday / evening service restored
X46: Extended to Stanhope every hour via it's one a day extension.
X46: Extended to Newcastle every hour and combined with X12 for 2 BPH.
N/A: Sedgefield to Newton Aycliffe, unsure on this one.

New direct links formed:
Barnard Castle to Durham
Stanhope / Tow Law to Durham
Langley Park to Newcastle
Crook to Newcastle
Darlington / Shildon to Stanhope

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Variation GO NORTH EAST LIMITED 309 (309, 307) North Shields Newcastle

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Variation GO NORTH EAST LIMITED 354 (354) North Shields Newcastle

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Variation GO NORTH EAST LIMITED 353 (353) North Shields Cramlington

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Variation GO NORTH EAST LIMITED 1 (1) Whitley Bay Metrocentre

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Variation GO NORTH EAST LIMITED X39 (X39) Cobalt Park Newcastle

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Variation GO NORTH EAST LIMITED X66 (X66) Metrocentre Gateshead Metro

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Variation GO NORTH EAST LIMITED 41 (41, 41A) Hadrian Park Wallsend

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Variation GO NORTH EAST LIMITED 10 (10, 10A, 10B) Hexham / Prudhoe / Blackhall Mill Newcastle

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Variation GO NORTH EAST LIMITED 355 (355) Forest Hall Newcastle

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Variation GO NORTH EAST LIMITED AD122 (AD122, AD12) Walltown Roman Army Museum Hexham

Have we got an estimated date when this usually happens. The result for the Q3/35 one still haven't been posted yet

Bit of a longshot, but does anyone know which was the last of 410/7410-420/7420 to be repained out of NMS livery into full Arriva livery?

Vaguely remember sometime early in 2001 riding a then newly repainted Palatine II in Arriva livery then days later, riding one still in NMS livery but fitted with a new Wayfarer 3 Ticket Machine.

I know there's already a thread generally on this but thought the Teesside one should probably have it's own thread than been stuck with the TNE bid.

Seen that Darlington in one of their latest council meetings has now released more details on this and the bid is for 62 buses split between Arriva Redcar and Darlington and Stagecoach Stockton.

See: https://democracy.darlington.gov.uk/docu...Report.pdf

There's also been a second document released by the TVCA on upgraded bus stops which has bus improvement corridors shown on maps.

See: https://teesvalley-ca.gov.uk/about/wp-co...024-fv.pdf

Edit: Someone confirmed it's the 2 at Darlington, 63 at Redcar with the rest at Stagecoach Stockton, left the original post below.

Now putting 1 + 1 together, which isn't always the most reliable by using the corridors on the maps and the depots listed above I have a feeling the bid might include these:

Arriva Darlington
2/2A (6)
X66/X67 (6)

Arriva Redcar
63 (13?)
X4 (8)

Stagecoach Stockton
36/37/38 (15?)
12 (6)

That's just speculating of course, but it would sense and would give a fair balance imo in terms of access across all areas, unlike other bids.

more NUFC related but with this weekend been a " green " one with sky and tnt cycling to everywhere to co CO2 it free travel to the men's game on Saturday and the women's game on sunday with presentation of a valid match ticket! Ambassador ....... it going to be carnage on Durham road!!

1428 AS TRANSFERD FROM STOCKTON TO REDCAR AS A REPLACEMENT FOR WITHDRWAN 4705

Hello all

After some advice on how to get from the penthouse to eston outside of boro tomorrow on the bus.

Ive not go long on computer but I've tried city zap and google  maps and they either send me by train from heworth or via the mega bus/national express.

one did suggest the x10 from heworth but then it was an arriva bus to eston - and i wanted to do it as cheaply as possible.

Anyone any idea if a GNE bus runs there.  If so what ticket and if not what ticket>

Appriciate it!

I can’t find an existing thread but has someone new taken over the GNE socials? They’ve been fairly on point and topical of late 

They’re even responding to customers publicly and the tone is actually spot on (though you can tell when it switches to someone else who isn’t very good at it) 

Though if I’m being picky…don’t respond with ‘I’ on a social media account. It’s ‘we’. It’s not your fault the driver drove past a full stop whilst sticking the v’ s up. Different on the phone of course.  

Now if they could just ditch the ridiculous 9-5 hours they’d be halfway to a good service

I spotted on X that that CPT held their 2024 conference this week. Two documents of note to come out of it: 

• CPT Bus Manifesto 2024
  
• CPT Coach Manifesto 2024
  

The bus one is interesting, but a lot of it isn't exactly a surprise. "Give us lots of money" seems to be the main cry, with a call for a five year funding settlement. The rationale behind that one is that they'll invest in new vehicles and services, which sounds like an expectation that public money will pay for their business to survive, but they'll cream a % off the top for shareholders.

There's also a demand in for "A new statutory, funded definition of essential bus services", which doesn't seem an unreasonable ask on the surface, but in practice, I'm not sure how it'd work. There's the risk that if something is too black and white, operators could simply review all their services, and then chuck back anything that marginally meets the definition. Knowing that a LTA/ITA would have no option, other than to put the service out to tender, and they'd likely end up running it without any risk. 

I also disagree with the statement "Bus services which cannot be run on a commercial basis can be supported by councils". Shouldn't 'cannot be' be replaced with 'we won't'? 

The bit on recruitment is also interesting. What red tape are they referring to?

I've only glossed over the coach one, but I do agree with the ask to "Issue clear guidance to councils to include coach services in their local transport plans (LTPs)". To me, they should be treated in exactly the same way as express bus or train services, as good city link services. My only issue is that I don't think the coach industry does enough themselves. 

Coaches, especially in the North of England, can be infrequent or poorly timed, serve the same key points as trains, and can be difficult to find information on. Why not look at some of the Towns and Cities that are cut off or poorly served from the main rail network? Co. Durham has loads of examples, and you could also add Sunderland into that mix. Coach travel may be a more realistic prospect for those, when it cuts out a journey to/from Newcastle or Durham to catch the train.