Planning permission has been granted to merge St Mary's Way and Livingstone Road in Sunderland City Centre to create a new tree-lined boulevard. This will make this route much more attractive and far better equipped to deal with the increasing levels of traffic this road will face when the Sunderland Strategic Transport Corridor is completed as a part of the new Wear Bridge and route to the Port in the East End. It's also to "prime" the Vaux site to attract private development as a new business district for the City Centre. The council think that private companies may be put-off developing Vaux if they have to shoulder the cost of the road layout improvements themselves; so Sunderland City Council are footing the bill themselves instead.

The boulevard, and the new Magistrates's Square on the site of the current roundabout, will sever the road link currently used by buses to access The Londonderry Hotel and Sunderland Empire Theatre.

The routes of these buses will be permanently changed as they become realigned to the new boulevard. Stagecoach service 8 City Centre - South Hylton, Stagecoach service 20 City Centre - Pennywell, Stagecoach services E1/E2/E6 South Shields - Sunderland; plus Go North East's X3, 9, 36 & 56 en-route to Park Lane Interchange. NexusBus 135/136 and Sunderland Connect 700 will also be diverted to travel along the full length of the new boulevard (701 doesn't currently serve Sunderland Empire Theatre / Londonderry Hotel anyway).

A dedicated bus lane will be included in the westbound direction, and will be served by routes 8, 20, E1/E2/E6, X3, 9, 36, 56 & 135. Only services 136 and 700/701 will travel in the eastbound direction, but these routes will still benefit from a dedicated bus bay and shelter.

For interest, I've enclosed a links to some images and a couple of site plans available from Sunderland City Council.

http://www.sunderland.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=6818

http://www.sunderland.gov.uk/Planning/St...nt=obj.pdf

http://www.sunderland.gov.uk/Planning/St...nt=obj.pdf

Advanced utility works are scheduled to start week commencing 14 January 2013. Details of the successful bidder to complete the works will be made in Spring 2013, with work on the new road starting in the summer. I'm led to believe that work on the new Magistrate's Square is supposed to start in Spring 2014 once the new boulevard opens, if my memory serves right.

Article in the Hexham Courant today -

http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk/news/news...rPath=home

The 685 is a jointly-operated service so thought best to mention it here rather than in the operator threads.

Is it just me who doesn't understand where some of this moaning comes from? For such a long distance route, I don't think the occasional 10 minute delay is anything to shout about at all. I've found myself regularly waiting much longer than this for a local bus service on a far shorter route!

For a route that is in competition with the train and other buses between Hexham and Newcastle, it might just not be economical to insert an extra bus into the timetable.

Going from the article, a problem journey appears to be the 0745 from Newcastle. This trip is operated by Arriva and I think they run the 685 from their Jesmond depot, and this journey will have come straight from there. Pleasing to see that Arriva are aware and working to resolve this though.

I've never travelled on the route myself, but I think it would be too much of an ask to expect every bus to operate to timetable when you take into consideration the mileage these coaches are put up to.

If members are interested, enclosed is the Guidance for Bidders for the fourth round of Green Bus funding for deliveries in 2013/2014. £20 million is available which will fund around 300 low carbon emission buses. Each bidder is restricted to a maximum total grant of £5 million.

[attachment=1357]

Interested bus operators have until 5pm on Tuesday 26 March 2013 to make their bids. Sadly, the government has reduced the grant available to up to 50% of the difference between the cost of a low-carbon emission bus and its diesel equivalent. When the Green Bus Fund first began in 2009, I believe this was 100% of the difference. I really hope a north east operator(s) manages to make another successful bid.

I believe delivery is very imminent for Arriva's MAN EcoCity's at Darlington and Hybrid Volvo double deckers for the 308 (Blyth-Newcastle) route, as a part of the third round of the Green Bus Fund.

Please remember that the Network One Day Rover reverts to the usual price of £6.80 from tomorrow instead of £5.50!

(31 Dec 2012, 8:27 pm)W179SCU wrote [quote='Daniel' pid='999' dateline='1356981970']
[quote='Michael' pid='997' dateline='1356971748']
Daniel what time were u at south shields and jarrow?, i was at both places today to, i decided to go on a adventure haha

Between 15:00 and 15:30. I had intended to stay longer but my camera died on me... It was constantly out from 09:00am! :L

---

Had intended on editing the above post but they'll go unnoticed now (as I've taken so long to caption them all)! See below:

I was there between 1 and 3, just missed you


Wonder what the first odd working on 2013 will be tommorow

Post here your first bus in 2013!

I suspect mine will be the usual Stagecoach Enviro 200 on the second 4 bus of the day; either the ADL Enviro 200 dart, or an Enviro 200 bodied MAN 14.240! Will get a fleet number on Wednesday

Just a general topic about cameras really...

After a horrid three-day experience with my Nikon Coolpix L810, I took it back to the shop and after much debate between the manager and I, I got a full refund. Was really disappointed with it though.

From tomorrow, I shall be using a Panasonic TX-30 - which I know should be pretty good. Well, that's assuming it lives up to the same standard as its predecessor, the Panasonic TX-20.
Flickr famous Stuart Montgomery (http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_montgomery/) uses a Panasonic TX-20 and some of his night shots are great - they're not static either! See below for an example:


I previously used a Sony DSC-W180 and it treated me well through my education and for general photography purposes up until December 24th of this year, when it faced its retirement. I must say that it's a brilliant camera though, and for its price, the quality of some of the images it has produced for me is phenomenal.

What kind of camera do you use?
Have you had any troubles with cameras in the past?

Just like to wish all members and visitors a great Christmas and a fab new year for 2013!!!

News/Pictures/Discussion regarding Weardale to be posted here.

[Don't think there will be much as they only have one service that operates at present - X21]


PS: Think we have all of the active operators in the North East on an individual thread now! ;-)
My mission for next week is to try and get a picture of 'em all so these threads can be illustrated too! Haha

News/Pictures/Discussion regarding Station Taxis to be posted here.

[Don't think there will be much as they only have two services that operates at present - TB20/TB21]