Since the new minibuses have come into service at Ashington, it means 1800, the last MPD clinging on has been finally withdrawn.

No doubt we've all been on one at some point either with Arriva or GNE and have had different views on them with them being pretty much everywhere in the North East from local routes in Whitby, Peterlee and North Tyneside, urban routes in Stockton, Sunderland and Newcastle and across the hills in Tynedale.

Thought I'd make a thread to give them a bit of credit since they won't get the big song and dance like other buses that have gone ie. the Solar's. I'm struggling to think of any other type of bus which have got about more in the NE other than maybe their bigger brother.

First have placed an order for 193 electric vehicles from Wrights.

https://news.firstbus.co.uk/news/first-b...ding-award

Given all the alleged failures of management, do we know what the new management structure will be at GNE?

Have East Yorkshire been separated yet, or are they still under GNE for now, and how will it work with Nigel being over both GNE and GNW?

Few photos on Facebook confirming a new advert booklet of a load of pubs round Newcastle & Gateshead. 

These mostly include the ones on the Q3 which is mentioned as QuayCity Voltra Q3 on 8 of the pubs

Microbus and others are on there. I'll send the screenshot of them below 

There is a registration on Companies House for a Go North East Buses with Transdev having significant control. Does anyone have any further information on this?

Nexus have revealed the timetables for the services during Metro Flow Closure.

It states that the replacement bus services will carry pink signage on the sides of the vehicles (no doubt using the advert frames) to show it's working on the Metro Replacement.

Frequency for the services are....

X900 (Heworth - Jarrow - South Shields) - Journey Time: 36 Minutes Heworth to South Shields, 32 Minutes South Shields to Heworth.
Every Day - Every 24 minutes - PVR 3

900 (Heworth - All Stops - South Shields) - Journey Time: 53 Minutes Heworth to South Shields, 45 Minutes South Shields to Heworth.
Mon - Fri Peak - Every 6 Minutes - PVR 18
Mon - Fri Off-Peak - Every 12 Minutes - PVR 9
Mon - Fri Evening - Every 15 Minutes - PVR 6
Saturday Daytime - Every 12 Minutes - PVR 9
Saturday Evening - Every 15 Minutes - PVR 6
Sunday All Day - Every 15 Minutes - PVR 6

So at peak hours Mon to Fri, if all Enviro 400s are reliable, 21 of the 23 shall be in service during peak hours Mon to Fri.

Very surprised to see that based on the maps on the Nexus site, Stagecoach won't be running their 553 this year, leaving the Newcastle to Shields work entirely to GNE with the R1 (what could possibly go wrong...) 
https://www.nexus.org.uk/greatnorthrun

Good to see ticket acceptance in place across all operators and modes of transport, less good to see only very vague info about what buses are running when, with only a couple of weeks to go.
https://www.stagecoachbus.com/promos-and...-north-run

So on the back of Arriva Northumbria's new order, I do have a question.

How come 6338-40 sound slightly different to 6341-55? 6338-40 have that more "hummm" like the Classic ZF E400s where as 6341-55 have a more B5TL/B9TL like rhythm.

Do the gearboxes in 6341-55 have a different profile setup? I know there was complaints about the retarders in 6338-40 during the first lockdown when they operated the special 45 and X30/X71.

I am sure we'll congratulate Go North East being nominated for best large operator of the year by Route One magazine, and no Roger French on the nominations panel either!

On a serious note, I can think of at least 10 operators off the top of my head that should be above three of the four nominations. 

https://www.route-one.net/awards/routeon...announced/

I was in Gateshead and I saw the X12 it had the 15 branded bus on, and on the right side it had something called the "Twilight Fare" £1 after 7pm, on the route 15 does anyone know if the Twilight Fare is on any other service.