(21 Dec 2019, 9:58 am)L469 YVK wrote From what I gather, the 309 will stay at every 15 minutes meaning the PVR will remain at 10 vehicles.

(21 Dec 2019, 10:34 pm)busmanT wrote I can't see a 20 minute frequency on 310 & 311 working with a 15 minute frequency on the 309 - stand clashes in Haymarket Bus Station and a frequency that will actually be less than at present on the Haymarket/St Marys Place departures, with some gaps of 10 minutes rather than the current 7/8 minutes. If 309 also runs every 20 minutes, then there can be an even 6/6/7 minute headway from Haymarket.
I'm sure we'll find out early in the new year when Go North East put the timetables on line.

(21 Dec 2019, 11:03 pm)L469 YVK wrote They wouldn't reduce the 309 to every 20 mins as that would give passengers away to the 308 which is a no no. The changes seem legit from what I hear as 2x drivers have told me. If they wanted to avoid clashes, they could move the 310 / 311 to Stand N and maybe put the Q3 Great Park bound journeys at M.

(21 Dec 2019, 11:08 pm)Jamie M wrote The council have a say in which buses go where, it's their bus station.

It's a nightmare trying to do anything with bus stations.

Would be better to just reduce the frequency (1 or 2 an hour) and nab one of the occasional services stands for it, since its only during daytime.

(21 Dec 2019, 11:08 pm)Jamie M wrote The council have a say in which buses go where, it's their bus station.

It's a nightmare trying to do anything with bus stations.

Would be better to just reduce the frequency (1 or 2 an hour) and nab one of the occasional services stands for it, since its only during daytime.

(22 Dec 2019, 12:11 pm)Storx wrote No way would they reduce the frequency of the 309. That and the 308 are by the far the busiest 2 buses along the coast road plus it would be ridiculous having a bus route branded Cobalt + Coast where 3 / 9 buses actually serve Cobalt or the Coast. It wouldn't surprise me if the 311 is badly run so it's delibrately dead so they can get arid of it all together. The 58 the majority of the time is dead along there now anyway as there's too many buses for demand 28 / 51 / 52 / 58 (311) / 306 / 308 / 309 / 310 / X39 (Peaks) / X6 (Peaks)

(22 Dec 2019, 12:11 pm)Storx wrote No way would they reduce the frequency of the 309. That and the 308 are by the far the busiest 2 buses along the coast road plus it would be ridiculous having a bus route branded Cobalt + Coast where 3 / 9 buses actually serve Cobalt or the Coast. It wouldn't surprise me if the 311 is badly run so it's delibrately dead so they can get arid of it all together. The 58 the majority of the time is dead along there now anyway as there's too many buses for demand 28 / 51 / 52 / 58 (311) / 306 / 308 / 309 / 310 / X39 (Peaks) / X6 (Peaks)

(22 Dec 2019, 1:17 pm)Dan wrote So if the 57 is dead most of the time, then why not reduce the frequency of the 309, so that there are fewer overall services per hour? The 57 sits on top of the others at the moment, so providing an even headway on 309, 310 and 311 should spread Coast Road customers out between buses a bit better.

Not sure I’d agree with the comments suggesting that each and every bus is full. If anything, I’d say most buses on the Coast Road are lightly loaded because between Arriva and Go North East, both operators have flooded the market.


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(22 Dec 2019, 1:17 pm)Dan wrote So if the 57 is dead most of the time, then why not reduce the frequency of the 309, so that there are fewer overall services per hour? The 57 sits on top of the others at the moment, so providing an even headway on 309, 310 and 311 should spread Coast Road customers out between buses a bit better.

Not sure I’d agree with the comments suggesting that each and every bus is full. If anything, I’d say most buses on the Coast Road are lightly loaded because between Arriva and Go North East, both operators have flooded the market.


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(22 Dec 2019, 1:17 pm)Dan wrote So if the 57 is dead most of the time, then why not reduce the frequency of the 309, so that there are fewer overall services per hour? The 57 sits on top of the others at the moment, so providing an even headway on 309, 310 and 311 should spread Coast Road customers out between buses a bit better.

Not sure I’d agree with the comments suggesting that each and every bus is full. If anything, I’d say most buses on the Coast Road are lightly loaded because between Arriva and Go North East, both operators have flooded the market.


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(18 Dec 2019, 11:46 am)Stanleyone wrote Don’t know if true but cascades of the red kite (Streetlites) have been rumoured

(22 Dec 2019, 1:47 pm)Michael wrote Proves that the passenger numbers are low anyway, as they're cutting the 57, so it terminates at Newcastle and not Hadrian Park.

So every bus will every 20 minutes (combined every 5/6 mins)

Edit: Typo!

PVR's for the Cobalt and Coast on a 20 minute frequency would be:

309: 7 PVR
310: 5 PVR
311: 3 PVR


15 PVR, however, there's 17 branded buses, so can't seem them repainting 2 already.

(22 Dec 2019, 2:02 pm)Michael wrote I thought those Streetlites were heading to Deptford for the 35 though?

(22 Dec 2019, 2:09 pm)L469 YVK wrote I think Stanleyone meant another service. The Cobalt & Coast services will be keeping the B9TLs (as shown with 6110 now showing 311 on the black tagline).

(22 Dec 2019, 2:23 pm)Michael wrote Ye, it would of been daft of them to remove the B9's so soon after a refurb.. but he was taking about the 6 and 12/12A, which is now confirmed for Citaro's.

(22 Dec 2019, 11:17 pm)DH9 wrote The Stanley changes look interesting. Clearly, M6 and M8 are truncated to Stanley and Metrocentre only. It's a shame as the M8 was a cleaner way of travelling between Annfield Plain and the Metrocentre than the 6. I'm guessing the 32 will finish an hour earlier in the afternoon than the M8 does with its Annfield Plain extension due to lower afternoon passenger numbers.

New 32 appears to be the M8 extension to Annfield Plain made stand alone. Unless theres something I'm missing, it would be probably more economical to send every second 16 into Fines Park (buses can do the route). Given the 16 in both directions stands a Stanley for 5 minutes, there' scope to do this.

The M6 extension to Lanchester reverts to being the 30. As this is hourly, this leaves Quaking Houses at one bus per hour for first time in years. Again, I may be missing something.

If M7 continues to be an East Stanley only service, the numbering becomes anomalous.

I hope the unreliability of the 6 is sorted out.

One change that has not happened and I'd have liked to have seen is it being the X31 and not the X30 continue hourly to Consett. The X31 makes more sense from a commuting point of view on accessing Gateshead and the Team Valley.from Annfield Plain. The two X32 journeys in each direction should definitely be extended, which would have restored a direct link between Consett and the southern end of the Team Valley lost with the 2007 withdrawal of the 934.

I'm hoping also the short 6 on a morning from Flint Hill to Stanley has its guaranteed link with the 7.10 am X32 restored. That was personally very useful to me.

(22 Dec 2019, 11:17 pm)DH9 wrote The Stanley changes look interesting.  Clearly, M6 and M8 are truncated to Stanley and Metrocentre only.  It's a shame as the M8 was a cleaner way of travelling between Annfield Plain and the Metrocentre than the 6.  I'm guessing the 32 will finish an hour earlier in the afternoon than the M8 does with its Annfield Plain extension due to lower afternoon passenger numbers.

New 32 appears to be the M8 extension to Annfield Plain made stand alone.  Unless theres something I'm missing, it would be probably more economical to send every second 16 into Fines Park (buses can do the route).  Given the 16 in both directions stands a Stanley for 5 minutes, there' scope to do this.

The M6 extension to Lanchester reverts to being the 30.  As this is hourly, this leaves Quaking Houses at one bus per hour for first time in years.  Again, I may be missing something.

If M7 continues to be an East Stanley only service, the numbering becomes anomalous.

I hope the unreliability of the 6 is sorted out.

One change that has not happened and I'd have liked to have seen is it being the X31 and not the X30 continue hourly to Consett.  The X31 makes more sense from a commuting point of view on accessing Gateshead and the Team Valley.from Annfield Plain.  The two X32 journeys in each direction should definitely be extended, which would have restored a direct link between Consett and the southern end of the Team Valley lost with the 2007 withdrawal of the 934.

I'm hoping also the short 6 on a morning from Flint Hill to Stanley has its guaranteed link with the 7.10 am X32 restored.  That was personally very useful to me.

(23 Dec 2019, 12:07 am)Jamie M wrote Why X31 to consett when you already have that section served by the X70 and X71?

(22 Dec 2019, 11:17 pm)DH9 wrote The Stanley changes look interesting.  Clearly, M6 and M8 are truncated to Stanley and Metrocentre only.  It's a shame as the M8 was a cleaner way of travelling between Annfield Plain and the Metrocentre than the 6.  I'm guessing the 32 will finish an hour earlier in the afternoon than the M8 does with its Annfield Plain extension due to lower afternoon passenger numbers.

New 32 appears to be the M8 extension to Annfield Plain made stand alone.  Unless theres something I'm missing, it would be probably more economical to send every second 16 into Fines Park (buses can do the route).  Given the 16 in both directions stands a Stanley for 5 minutes, there' scope to do this.

The M6 extension to Lanchester reverts to being the 30.  As this is hourly, this leaves Quaking Houses at one bus per hour for first time in years.  Again, I may be missing something.

If M7 continues to be an East Stanley only service, the numbering becomes anomalous.

I hope the unreliability of the 6 is sorted out.

One change that has not happened and I'd have liked to have seen is it being the X31 and not the X30 continue hourly to Consett.  The X31 makes more sense from a commuting point of view on accessing Gateshead and the Team Valley.from Annfield Plain.  The two X32 journeys in each direction should definitely be extended, which would have restored a direct link between Consett and the southern end of the Team Valley lost with the 2007 withdrawal of the 934.

I'm hoping also the short 6 on a morning from Flint Hill to Stanley has its guaranteed link with the 7.10 am X32 restored.  That was personally very useful to me.

(23 Dec 2019, 5:04 am)Stanleyone wrote 30 will continue as is now, 1 hourly to Lanchester and 1 hourly to Quaking Houses, 31 will be the current M7 and 32 will be the current M8 all interworking. X31 won’t replace the X30 simply because of the driver change overs at Consett, X30 and X70/X71 arrive within minutes of each other at Sunniside I’d anyone wants Gateshead from the places you mentioned, in my opinion not that many make the connection (if any) most I would think will catch the 16 and wait the 7/8 mins at Stanley.

(24 Dec 2019, 12:54 pm)ASX_Terranova wrote Any Idea about 4,8 and 50.
As a Washington lad any major Changes would be good to know about

(24 Dec 2019, 12:54 pm)ASX_Terranova wrote Any Idea about 4,8 and 50.
As a Washington lad any major Changes would be good to know about

(24 Dec 2019, 3:19 pm)S813 FVK wrote I'm sure Go North East will publish them all in good time once New Year is out the way.

(26 Dec 2019, 1:07 pm)Michael wrote Hopefully in the next few days.