(03 Jan 2015, 5:22 pm)Dan wrote I've been trying to limit my days out recently as I have mock exams next week in school, but I decided that today would be my final day out before two full days of solid revision. I didn't really have a set plan, other than I wanted to go to nPower (for a photo of the 35A and Park & Ride services - unbeknown to me at the time that the latter didn't operate on Saturdays) and to Durham (for photos of the new ANE Enviro200s and GNE Volvo B7 repaints). Expected to go to Newcastle after that, but it didn't quite work out like that...

0954 Metro - Stadium of Light to Park Lane (T&WM 4019)
1002 20A - Park Lane to Rainton Bridge (GNE 5212)
1050 20A - Rainton Bridge to Durham (GNE 4992)
1152 7 - Durham to Darlington (ANE 1521)
1320 X66 - Darlington to Stockton (ANE 4656)
1413 37 - Stockton to Middlesbrough (SNE 27167)
1510 X7 - Middlesbrough to Sunderland (GNE 5334)
1634 Metro - Park Lane to Stadium of Light (T&WM 4021)

Like Jimmi, my day also started off badly (but for different reasons). As I missed the 09:47 #35A, I had to rely on a rather risky 2-minute connection in Park Lane. The Metro was 1 minute late, which meant it was a 1-minute connection. I had to run to catch the 20A, but I did manage. Once I got to Rainton Bridge, it soon became clear that the Park & Ride services don't operate on Saturdays, meaning that I had 20 minutes to wait in the cold. Enjoyed my ride on 4992 - you can tell it's recently had an engine overhaul, that's for sure. Decided at last minute to hop on the 7 to Darlington to catch a few MAX Omnis, forgetting how long and boring the journey is (could really do with an express version of the 7). Had to endure an X66 journey with an incredibly smelly man sitting next to me, and the Wi-Fi wasn't working either. Decided I wanted to kill some time so I got on the 37 to Middlesbrough - was meant to pull in at 25 mins past, didn't get there until 30 despite leaving Stockton on time. Meant that I missed the TTX back up to Newcastle, so I decided to just get the X7 back home instead. Metrocar 4021 is awful.

(03 Jan 2015, 5:56 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote Nice knowing you.

(03 Jan 2015, 6:05 pm)Dan wrote Tuesday 6th Jan - 09:00 1hr 45m - English
Tuesday 6th Jan - 11:40 1hr - IT

Wednesday 7th Jan - 09:00 2hr - Media

Thursday 8th Jan - 09:00 1hr 15m - Business.


Not sure why the IT one is only an hour long, but I guess it means we aren't doing the full paper. I'm off-timetable all next week, with Monday being a Staff Development Day, so I'll get Friday off! 

(03 Jan 2015, 6:09 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote Daniel Graham was an influential bus enthusiast - a kind, gentle fellow with a heart of gold. Intelligent to the extreme, he was a credit to bus enthusiasm in the region.

(03 Jan 2015, 6:03 pm)GuyParkRoyal wrote 09:39 Chester le Street to Newcastle #X2 (ANE 7454)
10:31 Haymarket to Four Lane Ends #55 (ANE 2825)
11:02 Four Lane Ends to Gosforth Park (Jim Hughes LT02ZZJ)
11:20 Gosforth Park to Regent Centre #43 (ANE 7474)
11:43 Regent Centre to Morpeth #X15 (ANE 7517)
13:11 Morpeth to Alnwick #X15 (ANE 7515)
14:10 Alnwick to Rothbury #15 (Spirit Buses 202)
14:55 Rothbury to Newcastle #14/X14 (ANE 7519)
16:20 Newcastle to Chester le Street #X2 (ANE 7619)
Overall a good day with an hour for luch in Morpeth.

(03 Jan 2015, 6:12 pm)Dan wrote

I'll be lucky to survive past 09:05am on Tuesday!

(03 Jan 2015, 5:52 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote Planning on having a rare Sunday outing tomorrow, can't remember the last I did.

Any suggestions?

Might try the X88, as I believe it's a B9 allocated on a Sunday!

Also maybe the 82/82A, haven't experienced the passenger numbers on a Sunday before.

(03 Jan 2015, 6:12 pm)Dan wrote

I'll be lucky to survive past 09:05am on Tuesday!

(03 Jan 2015, 6:29 pm)aureolin wrote I've only done the 7 once, and found it a bit unbearable. It takes far too long for what is a simple journey from Durham to Darlington, via Newton Aycliffe. I'd imagine there'd be an express service or two on offer, if Arriva didn't have a monopoly of Darlington.

I had no real issues with the WiFi on the X66 yesterday. I did find it slightly irritating that it wanted an email address, despite me opting out of any marketing information.

(03 Jan 2015, 6:35 pm)Dan wrote Agreed. I've done it two or three times on Sundays and often been tired enough to just sit there and chill whilst having my earphones in, but I didn't do that today. The monotonous announcements were a little more tolerable on this journey, but still irritated me. 

I've never quite been able to understand the discussion with regards to capacity issues on the 7 service, as whenever I have used it, I've basically been one of about five on-board. As I said above though, I've only done the journey on Sundays so assumed that was the reason why. I found there was still plenty of room on-board the 7 I used today, too, though. I didn't count or anything, but I'm inclined to suggest that the X66 I used afterwards to Stockton carried more passengers in total, and there was still plenty of room on that as well. Certainly wasn't ever more than three people in front of me at any point during the journey, and I was sat on the row of seats behind the emergency exit.

(03 Jan 2015, 6:32 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote Only used the 7 once, and probably will remain that way.

Me being a bit of a stranger around that area south of Durham, I would have gotten off sooner in maybe Newton Aycliffe but I just stayed on to Darlington. Was pretty messed up inside too, beer cans everywhere, didn't seem clean at all. Bus was 1522 if I recall, think it's at Belmont?

An express service for the short distance between Durham and Darlington (short when compared to the total journey time!) is needed.

(03 Jan 2015, 6:38 pm)tyresmoke wrote Everything is quiet at the moment though being January - even our 5's are carrying small loads whereas before Christmas we had standing loads. The express version of the 7 is the train - you couldn't really compete with that, journey time wise.

(03 Jan 2015, 6:38 pm)tyresmoke wrote Everything is quiet at the moment though being January - even our 5's are carrying small loads whereas before Christmas we had standing loads. The express version of the 7 is the train - you couldn't really compete with that, journey time wise.

(03 Jan 2015, 6:50 pm)citaro5284 wrote Was this because of all the Christmas Shoppers out in force.  What is the 5's like normally, say in Feb or March, also the schools are still off at the moment which will all count to smaller loadings.

(03 Jan 2015, 6:49 pm)Dan wrote I agree, and disagree. It's obvious that a bus cannot really compete with regards to journey time, when the train can get you from A to B in 16 minutes. An 'Anytime' single costs £7.20, though.

Go North East operate express bus services between Sunderland / Newcastle and Middlesbrough with high passenger numbers. For example, the Northern Rail train takes 58 minutes (at a cost of £10.40 for a single) whereas the X7 takes 1hr 23m (with a day ticket costing about £3.00 less than the £10.40 train single fare).
Appreciate this isn't the 'Service Suggestions' thread, but surely Arriva could therefore compete by introducing a limited hourly(?) 'X7' express service operating between Durham and Darlington, going straight down the A1, offering a lower single cost than the competing train? Imagine the journey time would take about 30mins from A to B, so if the demand was there...

(03 Jan 2015, 7:08 pm)mb134 wrote I just think it's Arriva not wanting to introduce a new service unless competition forces them. Look at the case in Nortumberland about 5-6 years ago, GNE introduced the express X41 between Ashington and Newcastle, with far lower journey times than the X31, X32 or X33 could offer. They then introduced the X30, with Scanias they already had (274, 281 and 289), and ran it 5 minutes in front. They could have easily done this previously, but chose not to as there was no competition and they had a monopoly pretty much.

(03 Jan 2015, 7:11 pm)tyresmoke wrote I'm not sure there is a huge amount of end to end demand on the 7 though? Most people from Newton Aycliffe go into Darlington, whereas those from Ferryhill tend to head for Durham. The college loadings give a few problems (and hence we run a duplicate) but the double decks on order should sort this...

Whether there'd be enough demand to run an hourly non-stop express I'm not sure? You'd probably be reliant on people heading into town to catch the express to the other end, which means extra journey time for them and this may not be worth it once you take into account connection times etc. Whether you'd be able to grow the market from others heading to Durham - maybe?

(03 Jan 2015, 7:32 pm)aureolin wrote I'd say there are definitely capacity issues with the 7, so it's positive that E400s have been ordered. The 7 leaves from the stand next to my bus at Durham bus station, so I notice the loads almost every day. It didn't seem to be doing too badly when I was in Darlington yesterday, but nowhere near a full bus. I obviously can't comment on this, as it's once in a blue moon that I'm there to see the Darlington end of the journey.

(03 Jan 2015, 7:11 pm)tyresmoke wrote I'm not sure there is a huge amount of end to end demand on the 7 though? Most people from Newton Aycliffe go into Darlington, whereas those from Ferryhill tend to head for Durham. The college loadings give a few problems (and hence we run a duplicate) but the double decks on order should sort this...

Whether there'd be enough demand to run an hourly non-stop express I'm not sure? You'd probably be reliant on people heading into town to catch the express to the other end, which means extra journey time for them and this may not be worth it once you take into account connection times etc. Whether you'd be able to grow the market from others heading to Durham - maybe?

(03 Jan 2015, 6:14 pm)mb134 wrote How was 7454 compared with 7515?

(04 Jan 2015, 10:08 am)GuyParkRoyal wrote 7454 is the winner for me the acceleration from a standing start was so impressive even on the incline towards the Red Lion in Birtley. On the negative side the noise from the engine bay on 7454 became irritating to the point that I would not like to do a long journey on that bus.

7515 was rather boring it got me from Morpeth to Alnwick on time even with two minuets wait in Felton to time correct.  Despite the refurbished interior and the wifi there was nothing else about 7515 to excite me.

I did notice a considerable variation in the performance of the Arriva Enviro 400's with 7515 manging the route but lacking at times. 7517 started to struggle as soon as it reached the slight incline beyond Brunton Lane and seemed to lack power for the remiander of the journey. When 7519 turned up I noticed serious paint blistering around the doors and windows and thought is this going to be a disappointing journey. 7519 did not disappoint it manged the journey from Rothbury to Morpeth with ease with a decent speed on  the steep up hill sections.

(04 Jan 2015, 7:41 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote I'm off for just the one day tomorrow, both parents are back to work (they currently look like zombies). So, my grandma, who lives at the other end of our housing estate, has us for the day (me and my sister). I reckon my mam will drop me and my sister along there just before 09:00 when she starts work, so if I have some breakfast, I can leave her house at 09:30 and get into Chester to catch the 09:56 #X2 to Durham, then if it gets there for 10:15, I can float around at that nice little spot up at the top to take some photos and get a #21 back or something?

(04 Jan 2015, 7:54 pm)Tom wrote North Road and the Roundabout is better.
Hate the spot in the bus station.