From the Sunderland echo:

Bus firm pays £10,000 in bonuses to its greenest drivers.

BUS company Stagecoach North East has paid out almost £10,000 in bonuses to eco-friendly drivers.
The firm introduced technology 20 months ago to encourage staff to drive in a more environmentally-friendly way.
The GreenRoad system provides real-time feedback on driving style including speed, braking, acceleration and turning, so drivers they can learn and improve.
Drivers are given a financial incentive to encourage them to comply with the system’s recommendations, with each driver able to earn up to £65 a time. Stagecoach has already paid its Sunderland drivers a collective bonus of £9,990.
Drivers can keep track of their performance with the depot computer or use their phones to access the GreenRoad data and see how they are performing.
Steve Hamilton is Eco Champion at Stagecoach North East’s Sunderland depot. Driving in an eco-friendly way not only reduced impact on the environment but also made journeys more enjoyable for Stagecoach’s customers.
He said: “It’s ultimately the passengers who benefit as the overall driving experience will be improved through good driving.
“Drivers are now much more aware of how the system works and the positives it will bring to their overall driving performance.
“The environment also benefits through a reduction in fuel consumption, which ultimately reduces the company’s carbon footprint.
“Stagecoach North East continues to be one of the top performing regions operating the Eco Driver System in the UK, which is no easy feat, especially as we operate in a number of busy cities. “Our drivers have always taken great care when driving, but now they can keep on track every day.”

Volvo Hybrid 7810 on the X5....0600 from Blyth

A group has been set up on Facebook for photographers to gather together and collect information about 'stolen photographs'.
One of my photographs appeared on someone's Facebook wall tonight, as advised by Bazza Houston.
Decided to set up a NEB version - the names of those who have 'stolen' any photographs will be listed in the original post for good measure.

Name and shame time, folks!

The list:

• Chris MacKinnon
  
• Garreth Kai McLeary
  

If Arriva are going to go for a double deck vehicle order, it'll most likely be 12 Volvo B5TL Gemini 3's or VDL DB300's Gemini 2's for the X10 and X11. This in turn would give 12 of the current fleet to Ashington / Alnwick to upgrade the X15 and X18 therefore allowing the X21 / X22 to become a mostly E400 operation. It's a possibility like.

Just a quick message to wish everyone Happy New Year. Best wishes for 2014.

(31 Dec 2013, 8:51 pm)andreos1 wrote I can't find it at the mo, but I put a link on the forum somewhere regarding the guy who designs the whole Trent Barton branding.
Apparently he is a bit of a legend.

Edit: here it is www.passengertransport.co.uk/2013/06/what-makes-a-really-good-bus-company/

Ray Stenning is renown in the bus industry for creating liveries, but also branding down to timetables, bus stop flags etc.

This last weekend saw the end of a tradition for thousands past and present, the Football Echo ceased to exist in printed form, in favour of going digital...

Football Fans out there will know what the Footy Ecka meant to us fans, I remember as a boy, being bribed by my granddad to walk from Roker Park(I was lazy and always wanted to get the bus, lol) to the Town with a promise to get me a copy and we would always catch one of the first deliveries and I went on to get it for donkeys year.

It is a shame really, but with the dawn of the Internet, Social Media, Smartphones/Tablets and rolling news on Sky Sports the Echo was always going to decline and eventually pulled.

Hi all

Thought I would add some details of the tenders that have gone out recently, see the attached PDF file for the latest situation that I'm aware of. I will add more and more detail in here as best as I can.

I'll keep this updated and put the latest info in this top post but feel free to discuss below!

Scott

So another another year over, a new one round the corner...Some brief words to sum this year up

*So big year for GNE, they invested heavily for Wright Steetlites and Optare Solos, and the recent purchase of deckers for Fab56 and Cobalt
*The Centenary
*Sunderland North was messed about with yet again
*Some of the oddest allocations I ever seen i.e. A Laser on the 202 and Sunderland Connect on 61 a while back.
*Brands were dropped and Brand Mergers(61 into Simplicity)
*Trespassing happened quite a few times at depots to get a picture, this annoyed us all

In other news

*Martin O'Neill was sacked and Paolo Di Canio was brought in
*Di Canios celebration at St James' Park was hilarious(wonder how expensive the dry cleaning bill is for that suit after a 3-0 win at Newcastle
*A new Prince of the Realm was welcomed by the country, securing the Monarchy for the next 3 generations
*Paolo Di Canio is fired after his face to face with Sunderland fans at The Hawthorns, wonder if he took getting sacked on the chin
*Gus Poyet is appointed and manages the team to only Sunderland's 2nd home Derby win in over 30 years, the only other was in 2008
Chelsea are beaten at Sunderland, with Sunderland landing a semi final spot
*Possibly the most loved leader, civil rights activist and elder statesmen, Nelson Mandela died aged 95...

Feel free to add to this

It appears there has been a bit of an incident on the King Seaways last night off the Yorkshire Coast.

Just reading about it on bbc website.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25539473