A thread for smaller operators in County Durham that don't necessarily require a thread of their own

News to start us off is that Cochranes have sold VDL Bova Magiq YJ06GNN to JB Tours, while joining the fleet is DAF SB4000 YJ03PHA

Well, it's New Years Eve!

Bring 'em in, what was your last bus of 2014?

Mine: Angel-branded Volvo B5HL/Wright Gemini 2 6060 from Durham Bus Station to Chester-Le-Street.

On 2nd January, post what you're first bus of 2015 was!

Marcus

Most of you may have been able to guess that this post was coming sooner or later, and I've decided to make it now in case I end up going out later tonight...

After making a post, I often sit on the "Who's Online" page to see the amount of people who pounce onto a post to read it straight away. On this occasion, I noticed Michael viewing a thread I made earlier this year, entitled, "We've done it!". This post celebrated the landmark achievement of the forum reaching 500 members, and discussion within this thread set our future goals for the forum. At the time, I suggested that we'd be 'setting the bar too high' by trying to reach 750 members, but I come with good news!

Our members have made a total of 70,098 posts in 669 threads.

We currently have 788 members registered.
Please welcome our newest member, dannygee
The most users online at one time was 176 on 13-10-2013 at 18:14

After multiple clear-outs from that post, with the intention of deleting older members who have not posted or been online in a number of months, we have actually accumulated 750 members and we've managed to exceed our 50,000 post goal too!

It's been another magnificent year for NEB. Our community is growing larger in size by the day, and our forum and other features are forever expanding too. I aspire that they will continue to do so in 2015, and the community will be even better this time next year.

Name and shame time... Our Top 10 Posters (as at 31/12/14, 11:25):
1: Dan - 10,468
2: Andreos1 - 5,841
3: Michael - 5,708
4: aureolin - 4,163
5: Tom - 3,424
6: Malarkey - 3,260
7: MrFozz - 2,723
8: tyresmoke - 2,584
9: Kuyoyo - 1,975
10: Jimmi - 1,904
I must note that MarcTheA4 probably would have been up there, but he requested that his post count was reset a month or two ago!


Happy New Year, everyone! All the best for 2015.

Although mentioned elsewhere, NCC have started ground surveys for the new bus station in Hexham.
http://www.northumberland.gov.uk/default...um=twitter

All other NCC related posts can be added to this thread

Labour’s Passenger Power campaign targets bus regulation
http://www.busandcoach.com/news/articles...egulation/

Sedgefield MP to back new bus service campaign
http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/11..._campaign/

Realised we don't have a one of these threads for Arriva!

This one is no longer living on, but 7392 nevertheless...
And slightly more recently is this one.

The presentation of the "Local Bus Scene" forums has really been irritating me as of late, and I've been conjuring up various ideas to make the forums more presentable. I've finally had a chance to get round to doing a few updates, and these are outlined below:

Arriva, Go North East and Stagecoach North East forums

• These forums have been massively 'cleaned up'. Several threads within these forums have been merged into the main "Latest" thread for each operator. There were a number of threads with minimal discussion after the original post, and the posts within some were complaints that the member had started a new thread when it could have easily fit into one of the main categorised threads.
  
• All "Latest" threads merged. Last year, we decided to split each of the main "Latest" threads by month to ease strain on our servers which was making the forum run slowly. We were not consistent in doing this, meaning that threads up until mid-2013 had been split with the rest left in one massive thread. We have encountered no major problems with the speed of the forum since we upgraded to paid hosting, so I have decided to merge all of these threads back into one again.
  
• All forums have been standardised. The threads in each forum have been replicated and re-named accordingly so that they are all the same. "Read Me" threads have been created explaining this in each forum.
  
• "Fleet News" thread from each of the forums removed. Instead, a new announcement system will be used. After the news is published, a small announcement bar will appear on the main forum index screen for 24 hours. When the news feature was first implemented in late 2013, there were concerns that these posts were somewhat obtrusive and unnecessary. My main gripe with these posts as of late has been the fact that they are quite time-consuming, and I'm often rather pushed for time when writing up the news, so this will save a few minutes for me whilst (hopefully) combating the concerns which were made some 12+ months ago.
  

That's all... for now!

Rather surprised we don't have a thread for these yet!

Recent arrivals to the fleet are Mercedes Vario YJ04GYU (from Coatham Coaches) and Bova Futura E8OVA (from Cumbria Coaches) - both wear the new style livery

Based at Margrove Park near Guisborough.

News to start us off is Mercedes Vario YJ04GYU sold to Rothbury Motors

I'll admit - I'm a huge James Bond fan! Anyone else?

Just looking for people's thoughts and opinions on Spectre. I'm quite concerned about all of this leaked stuff, hopefully it doesn't have any effect on the movie itself.

My top three movies would be;

1) Skyfall (2012)
2) For Your Eyes Only (1981)
3) Diamonds are Forever (1971)

I would also have those 3 movie's theme songs as my top 3 Bond songs. My top 3 actors would be Roger Moore (007), Dame Judi Dench (M - about the 4th one I think! ) and Daniel Craig (007), in that order.

The only thing I'm not really looking forward to with Spectre is Ralph Fiennes as M. Would much rather have Judi Dench's straight face for some reason!

Click here a link to the 23 best Bond moments - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNLLPbMThGM

What would your top 3 movies, actors and songs be?