Opinions and predictions please!

Stagecoach: the first of the big three to show their hand with the planned merger with, or take over by (depends on your point of view) National Express. Will this development have any effect on local Stagecoach services?  One consequence of this will be the National Express contracts once ran by GNE.   Will these now be ran by Stagecoach?  What will happen to the Megabus services ran out of the northeast Stagecoach depots? The pandemic surely pushed NX into expanding their reach into local bus services, these at least had government support, whereas the coaching business didn’t get anything like that sort of help. 

Arriva: obvious that DB are desperate to divest themselves of Arriva UK Bus.  They’ve recently closed their company pension scheme, which to me is to make the company as a whole a more attractive proposition to any potential buyer. Was Trandevs acquisition of Yorkshire Tiger a precursor to a full or partial takeover of the business? Or are there other potential buyers on the horizon?

GNE: until recently probably seen as the most secure of the big 3. However, the pandemic has played havoc with any plans they had two years ago and it is almost a reset. There’s also the small problem that the Go Ahead Group currently has regarding their rail franchises, share trading has been suspended in the last couple of days. It was recently reported that the First Group, having sold operations in North America, we’re looking to refocus on their UK bus operations and that Go Ahead were on their radar, how likely is this?

It has been reported that the ‘levelling up’ agenda and the possibility of more investment in bus services and public transport (think BSIP) may make bus companies more attractive investments than they have been for many years, or is that just pie in the sky?

Hearing rumours that Jesmond Depot has now been sold.

As boats are more adaptable than trains, can alter course when necessary, and don't need complicated diagrams to operate. I thought we could have a suggestion thread for ferries to carry over some of the lunacy we witness in the suggestion threads of the big three bus operators in the region.

If some some of the weirs were flattened; the River Team widened; and some sort of harbouring facilities constructed near  Queensway North and Fifth Aveneue on tbe Team Valley (the Gateshead one, not the ones located in either Sunderland or Newcastle); then I think its would be possible to start a clipper service between Team Valley and North Shields with additional stops at Dunston Staithes, the Quayside, Bill Quay, Walker, Wallsend, Jarrow, Royal Quays, Tyne Dock and South Shields.

Boats would run every 6 minutes with a PVR of goodness knows.

Im early but its New Years Eve tomorrow,so the networks might get jammed,thread for all odd workings for 2022,i will subtitle it January 2022

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January 2022

Im early but its New Years Eve tomorrow,so the networks might get jammed,thread for all odd workings for 2022,i will subtitle it January 2022

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 January 2022

Im early but its New Years Eve tomorrow,so the networks might get jammed,thread for all odd workings for 2022,i will subtitle it January 2022

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January 2022

(29 Dec 2021, 3:20 pm)Dan wrote Go North East ran services 308 and X10 to Blyth on Boxing Day, and I have heard a number of comments about how passengers tried to buy the £4 North Tyne day ticket (valid on GNE's 309) and were taken aback when they were told it costs £8.50 on Arriva's service.

If any passenger on an 'ANE' service was getting charged £8.50 on Boxing Day then there's something seriously wrong. 

For the Blyth and Tyne and Wear services which you mention the £6.40 two zone ticket would cover them - on the 308 the £3.90 Coastliner Routesaver would cover them from Blyth to Newcastle. 

North of the Tyne, the £8.50 ticket is only really of use when heading north of Morpeth/Ashington, or south of the Tyne.

The proposals would create a bus priority route along Holmeside through to Vine Place by creating a gyratory system turning traffic from Holmeside onto Maritime Street.

Proposed improvements Waterloo Street and Athenaeum Street to the south of the railway station will remain one way in an anti clockwise direction joining the gyratory system at the junction of Athenaeum Street with Waterloo Place.
It is proposed to move the existing taxi rank from Athenaeum Street and Waterloo Street onto Brougham Street. This will align with the Sunderland Station redevelopment and place the taxi rank in a location that is easily accessible to customers exiting the new station.

The proposals will improve the public realm to the south and west of the new Sunderland Station which will create a more pedestrian focussed environment helping to link the station with the taxis ranks on Brougham Street, Blandford Street and the new multi storey car park that is proposed on Holmeside.



https://www.sunderland.gov.uk/holmeside

(29 Dec 2021, 10:59 am)L469 YVK wrote I might be wrong, but I'm fairly sure it's 16 minutes at both ends?

That's still fairly decent. Some of Arriva Alnwick 'X' routes have less at both ends.

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It's not something GNE would've done without much consideration.

Times have changed and GNE need to adapt accordingly. And that doesn't just go for the X9/X10 or cutting other services where the demand has eased, but maybe actually exploiting other changes to travel pattern demands etc and potentially capitalising. 

I'd love that to happen. I don't think the powers that be at GNE towers think that such things exist beyond a couple of once a day services to Whitby or Belsay. 
I can't think of the last regular service they introduced. The AD122? That wasn't exactly a new, inspirational idea either...

Thread for GNE general Convesations 


I saw this old post off Ambassador 

"Purely anecdotal but thanks to Gateshead Council's appalling approach to traffic management, I've used a few buses over the weekend and noticed something interesting with the 21.

Whenver the Brandon and Durham 21 pulls in people let it go and automatically go for the 21 - it's almost like they auto programmed to hop on the CLS one as they think Durham and Brandon is an express. I hopped on a D&B 21 from Gateshead this morning which was tailgated the whole way by a CLS 21 and people were either letting ours go past or in the case of the Cannon, walking past it to get onto a the CLS one."

And in my opinion its not just the 21, its the 21 or X1 into Newcastle. 20 to Durham instead of the X20. X21/21 to NCL rather than X22 to Metrocentre. 

16 to Consett rather tahn the X5.