(23 May 2021, 7:07 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote Are the 19 and 434 good services to Ashington? Is the 434 a contracted service? I'd like to go to Ashington some time. Maybe 309 to Blyth, then 434 to Ashington or maybe 309/310 to Cobalt and the 19 to Ashington. How good are the connections between the 19, 309 and 434? To get back I'd need a 19 to Cobalt and then a 309 back to Newcastle. Quite complicated to get to and from Ashington!

(23 May 2021, 7:22 pm)Storx wrote Depends what your definition of good is. If it's going around the world and taking 5 times longer then maybe. The X20/X21/X22 are the buses to Ashington though and going any other way is just extremely complicated tbh. Ashington and Cambois aren't places I'd exactly be rushing to get to either no offence to them both. 

Oh and the 434 doesn't serve Blyth unless your planning to swim across the river :p North Blyth is near Cambois. It is contracted though by Northumberland Council.

(23 May 2021, 7:34 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote Thanks for the reply.

Stupidly, I thought I could get the 434 from Blyth, but it certainly is across the river! So 309 to Cobalt and 19 to Ashington would be the answer. 434 doesn't connect with any other services. I thought 434 must be contracted as it's so infrequent and doesn't seem like a pupular service. Are Northumberland contracts renewed every so often? Like 74/434/808 etc. Not sure how many Northumberland contracts there are.

(23 May 2021, 7:38 pm)Storx wrote Honestly not sure how the contracts are done believe they're done on a longer basic rather than the approach Nexus does with them all being short contracts. 

Believe most of the Tynedale Links are though. You've got the S1/S2 in Morpeth, there's the Alnwick to Thropton service (forgot number), the 19 north of Northumberland Park which is in partnership with Cobalt, the 58 in partnership with the NHS (I believe) and the 57A evening services but believe they're done by Seaton Valley Parish Council. Other than that not sure there's anything else probably some of the Berwick local routes are aswell and the Wooler service which I don't know much about tbh

You should be able to get the 19 to Ashington and then the 434 back to Bedlington Station and change back onto the 19 or vice versa though, unsure on connections though.

(23 May 2021, 8:06 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote Yeah, Nexus are just a nightmare with their short contracts. Northumberland contracts are much longer. Is the Alnwick - Thropton service you're thinking of the Phoenix Coaches 15?  It's good most services are commercially viable.

434 doesn't seem like a good service for me to use. 

Phoenix Coaches are good and should introduce more services.

Seriously expect GCT will get (and ruin) the 33/33A next March. GNE will almost certainly lose it. Q3 will always be there hopefully, but shame about the 33/A, it'd a good service I haven't used much.

(23 May 2021, 8:14 pm)Storx wrote Yeah that's the one the 15, used to be ran by the independent Spirit Buses before it got messed up by the X14 changing timetables and messing up connections. 

Tbf though we've got similar problems with Rural Link or whatever name it wants to call itself this week who never run services and nothing is ever done. Believe they got some of the Hexham contracts recently aswell. It's even more of a grim bus company than GCT. Least they have buses which are fit for the road.

Phoenix used to run a few services in Nexus land but haven't got anything recently. Sure they had the 19 at one point. Veolia were the best tho imo shame they shut down though. That's a while ago now though.

(23 May 2021, 7:22 pm)Storx wrote Depends what your definition of good is. If it's going around the world and taking 5 times longer then maybe. The X20/X21/X22 are the buses to Ashington though and going any other way is just extremely complicated tbh. Ashington and Cambois aren't places I'd exactly be rushing to get to either no offence to them both. 

Oh and the 434 doesn't serve Blyth unless your planning to swim across the river :p North Blyth is near Cambois. It is contracted though by Northumberland Council.

(23 May 2021, 10:31 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote The 19 is just over an hour to Ashington from Cobalt. Shame the 434 doesn't serve Blyth. A link from Ashington to Blyth would be good.

(23 May 2021, 11:33 pm)omnicity4659 wrote 1 runs between Ashington and Blyth - an Arriva service.

434 doesn't serve Blyth because it was cut back to provide a more frequent service for those in Cambois and North Blyth, the only places it was intended to benefit. When the 30 and 34 merged it became Linton to Bedlington Station, with a frequency reduction so it used one bus instead of the previous two from Arriva/Phoenix.

The main purpose of the 434 is to connect the four villages of Linton, Cambois, North Blyth and West Sleekburn to amenities in Ashington. It's not really for end-to-end journeys.

(23 May 2021, 11:59 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote Of course. So I suppose GNE wouldn't introduce a service.

I see the 434 used to serve Haymarket, Regent Centre/Gosforth and then Wideopen and Seaton Burn to Bedlington, Stakeford and North Seaton, back in 1996. A shame we don't have a service like that anymore, from Regent Centre to Wideopen and Seaton Burn to somewhere like Blyth or something.

Yeah, I was only going to use the 434 Blyth to Ashington, but it doesn't serve Blyth. Disappointing.

(24 May 2021, 2:11 am)omnicity4659 wrote I think today's 434 was the 444 at that point in time. That 434 shadows most of the X21/X22.

I wasn't aware of that particular 434 though, the North Seaton part of it actually lasted into the last decade as part of a singular X21 journey.

(24 May 2021, 12:38 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote Ah, thanks for that.

Shame they won't  bring that particular 434 back, or a similar route. Hopefully the 19 will continue to exist (I doubt it will) to serve Ashington.

(24 May 2021, 9:17 pm)omnicity4659 wrote That 434 is kinda provided by the X20/X21/X22 now, and the top end of Seaton Burn is served by the stop outside of the Services, which is/was used by a couple of people when I used to commute at a similar time to the 434. Not really the demand there for a place which doesn't have many work opportunities.

(24 May 2021, 12:38 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote Ah, thanks for that.

Shame they won't  bring that particular 434 back, or a similar route. Hopefully the 19 will continue to exist (I doubt it will) to serve Ashington.

(25 May 2021, 8:04 am)V514DFT wrote Is the 57A the old 442,did GNE ever run their equivilent to that

(25 May 2021, 8:17 pm)Big O wrote How well are the X20/21/22 services used?

(23 May 2021, 7:07 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote Are the 19 and 434 good services to Ashington? Is the 434 a contracted service? I'd like to go to Ashington some time. Maybe 309 to Blyth, then 434 to Ashington or maybe 309/310 to Cobalt and the 19 to Ashington. How good are the connections between the 19, 309 and 434? To get back I'd need a 19 to Cobalt and then a 309 back to Newcastle. Quite complicated to get to and from Ashington!

(31 May 2021, 6:30 pm)Metroline1511 wrote When I come to Newcastle next week I shall use route 19, possibly linking Ashington with North Shields although it is of course a long ride.  As I don't know the other villages served by route 434 I do not intend to include that route.

(31 May 2021, 6:30 pm)Metroline1511 wrote When I come to Newcastle next week I shall use route 19, possibly linking Ashington with North Shields although it is of course a long ride.  As I don't know the other villages served by route 434 I do not intend to include that route.

(31 May 2021, 6:44 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote North Shields to Ashington is a long route. Any particular reason you are using the 19? Yeah, the 434 isn't a good route.

(31 May 2021, 7:17 pm)mb134 wrote Depending on the time you're up that way, you could realistically: 

Get a 19 to The Elephant, either the 10:02 or 12:02 off North Shields would get you there for 11:21/13:21. 

Catch the 434 from the other side of the road at 11:30/13:30, gets you to Bedlington Station Station Street at 11:53/13:53. 

From there get an X21 (12:01/14:01) back to Newcastle, or a 1 (12:19/14:19) to Blyth and a 309 to Newcastle from there.

(31 May 2021, 9:11 pm)Metroline1511 wrote Really for the distinction that it goes a long way north of Go North East's main territory.  I similarly like route 309 continuing to Blyth.

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That could be a nice way to combine all the 3 Go North East routes north of North Tyneside.

I reckon on doing Newcastle - Ashington - North Shields - Blyth - Newcastle and more.  My plans are just to include Northumberland from Tyne & Wear rather than local links there, as there is so much choice already.

(31 May 2021, 10:56 pm)Storx wrote I'm not sure what your plans are but I'd probably do

Newcastle -> Blyth -> Ashington -> North Shields in that order. There's no direct bus between North Shields and Blyth so you'll be doing 2 buses or using the Metro.

It all connects quite nicely aswell

10:21 to Blyth (309) in at 11:26
11:42 to Ashington (Arriva 1) in at 12:19
12:30 to North Shields (19) in at 14:00

14:10 to Jarrow (319) in at 14:22

Seen you mention it in the GCT thread. Add hours on or off it's the same every hour until about 2pm.

(31 May 2021, 11:08 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote I'm looking for some interesting Go North East-only trips. Maybe some GCT buses, and I'd like to get the A-line 792 to Benton sometime, although it's a works bus so I'm unsure. Where are the best places to go?

(02 Jun 2021, 10:12 pm)Storx wrote Ah your asking the wrong person tbh for GNE. I live in Arriva land, we just have the 19 locally. Only really know North Tyneside for GNE off the back off my hand and there's not really much you can do nowadays as not much exists since it's a bit all over the place and their routes are a bit meh really.

There's plenty of GCT around nowadays though if you wanted to try them with the 335, W1/W2/W3, 333 and then the evening services; never used them though so can't really say much about them bar what others have said.

(02 Jun 2021, 11:08 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote So you're a fan of Arriva then? North Tyneside is quite good. Some nice places, but maybe not much to do. South Shields and Gateshead are good too. Can go bus spotting across the region...

GCT are everywhere. I need to give their 42A and 335 a go. Been on their 84A and 516 services. 

What do you think about me going on the works buses, 392 and 792, would it be daft to do that?

(03 Jun 2021, 7:40 pm)omnicity4659 wrote We used to have the 494 works bus and people boarded it at various stages returning from the DWP, so you'll be fine using them. They're all as interesting in terms of routes.