Branching this out of the Stockton Depot thread where the orders are being discussed, but just a few comments on the vehicle allocations in Northumbria which are increasingly inappropriate. 

I was walking towards Barras Bridge tonight for my bus home and saw a few Arriva services leaving Haymarket. 

The 1610 308 was operated by 1495, and to be honest I don't think I've ever seen as many people standing on a Pulsar. The 15:45 and 16:00 308/306 also ran, so it isn't as though this was taking multiple loads. People were stood up to the seating right at the back, with a huge clump crowding the tip down seats up to the cab. 

The 1615 X22 was ran by 7563 and had pretty much a full load, with a couple standing downstairs, from what I could see. Looked to be a few seats free, but the loading it had would have been too much for a Pulsar I'd think. Again, the 16:00 X21 and 15:45 X22 ran. This run is booked for a Pulsar, and majority of times I have seen it operated by one has had a standing load. 

The Coast Road services at this time seem particularly susceptible to leaving Newcastle with full and standing Pulsars, yet nothing is being done about this. Similarly the main Ashington (X21/22) and Blyth (X10/11) express services are always standing loads if allocated a saloon. The Morpeth express services are always decker operated bar the X16 when I see them, and the X7/8/9 are always fully seated if a Pulsar but not standing. The X30 leaving town around this time, however, seems to always be a decker yet realistically a Solo could probably lift the amount of people using it. 

There have also been a few times recently where I've been waiting at Regent Centre at similar times and have been unable to board 43/44/45s due to them being Pulsar operated and bus full already. Even when they've dropped off there, the driver has evidently decided it's been unwise to take any more on. 

As much as I am sure lots of these services mentioned can cope with saloons during the day, they quite clearly cannot cope with them in the peaks. I do get that operating double deckers during the day on services with 20-30 people on is a bit of a waste, but then surely annoying your regular commuters by cramming them onto a Pulsar every night cannot help business long term?

(29 Oct 2025, 8:17 pm)PH - BQA wrote Branching this out of the Stockton Depot thread where the orders are being discussed, but just a few comments on the vehicle allocations in Northumbria which are increasingly inappropriate. 

I was walking towards Barras Bridge tonight for my bus home and saw a few Arriva services leaving Haymarket. 

The 1610 308 was operated by 1495, and to be honest I don't think I've ever seen as many people standing on a Pulsar. The 15:45 and 16:00 308/306 also ran, so it isn't as though this was taking multiple loads. People were stood up to the seating right at the back, with a huge clump crowding the tip down seats up to the cab. 

The 1615 X22 was ran by 7563 and had pretty much a full load, with a couple standing downstairs, from what I could see. Looked to be a few seats free, but the loading it had would have been too much for a Pulsar I'd think. Again, the 16:00 X21 and 15:45 X22 ran. This run is booked for a Pulsar, and majority of times I have seen it operated by one has had a standing load. 

The Coast Road services at this time seem particularly susceptible to leaving Newcastle with full and standing Pulsars, yet nothing is being done about this. Similarly the main Ashington (X21/22) and Blyth (X10/11) express services are always standing loads if allocated a saloon. The Morpeth express services are always decker operated bar the X16 when I see them, and the X7/8/9 are always fully seated if a Pulsar but not standing. The X30 leaving town around this time, however, seems to always be a decker yet realistically a Solo could probably lift the amount of people using it. 

There have also been a few times recently where I've been waiting at Regent Centre at similar times and have been unable to board 43/44/45s due to them being Pulsar operated and bus full already. Even when they've dropped off there, the driver has evidently decided it's been unwise to take any more on. 

As much as I am sure lots of these services mentioned can cope with saloons during the day, they quite clearly cannot cope with them in the peaks. I do get that operating double deckers during the day on services with 20-30 people on is a bit of a waste, but then surely annoying your regular commuters by cramming them onto a Pulsar every night cannot help business long term?

Not much you can do at Blyth, they've got to go on something and since the X7/X8/X10/X11 and 306/308 interwork the choices are little, I'm sure the X9's start interworking at peak times aswell just to complicate things even more. 

Obviously the best solution for that is to buy some new electrics for the 43/44/45 and from everything I've seen, replace completely capable DB300's because they're 2 years older and leave a whole load of Pulsar's to do I'm not sure exactly what.

Things are going to get worse aswell since they've got 13 Pulsars for a PVR 6 and those 7 Pulsar's can't be dumped on the 43/44/45, the best of the worst routes imo, soon. (Those being the best as there's boards which are up in Morpeth during peak times).

Personally as a passenger, and I'm sure everyone who uses Blyth's buses would agree with me; I'd rather see all but 2 Pulsar's (for the 553), leave Blyth over the 59 Plate DB300's.

The DB300 have been absolute workhorses and have aged far more gracefully than their awful Scania ELC Cityzen predecessors too. We have agreed before, but I’ll re-iterate, Blyth probably should be mostly allocated deckers for all their services apart from the 553. As a rule of thumb, any Northumbria service starting or ending at Newcastle Haymarket should be a decker period IMHO.

Given the stop/start nature of the 306/308, those services should be the next candidate for EV deckers given their excellent acceleration.

For Ashington’s longer distance routes in a fantasy world I would re-introduce coaches on them, which would make it more attractive for tourists with luggage to boot. At the very best the busses used on the X15-X18 should have high backed seating as may customers will be on them for a while.

(29 Oct 2025, 10:34 pm)solsburian wrote The DB300 have been absolute workhorses and have aged far more gracefully than their awful Scania ELC Cityzen predecessors too. We have agreed before, but I’ll re-iterate, Blyth probably should be mostly allocated deckers for all their services apart from the 553. As a rule of thumb, any Northumbria service starting or ending at Newcastle Haymarket should be a decker period IMHO.

Given the stop/start nature of the 306/308, those services should be the next candidate for EV deckers given their excellent acceleration.

For Ashington’s longer distance routes in a fantasy world I would re-introduce coaches on them, which would make it more attractive for tourists with luggage to boot. At the very best the busses used on the X15-X18 should have high backed seating as may customers will be on them for a while.

Yeah can't disagree with the top bit if I had to be honest.

Agreed with the coaches aswell, I always think there should be a proper North Northumberland express personally and have it hourly with the X15/X18 Northern bits on it so those travelling further get more luxury.

You'd probably have to make it completely non stop between Morpeth and Newcastle though and ideally Morpeth and Alnwick (but that would need extra services). 

A coach from Seahouses to Newcastle etc would be popular imo and the X18 double back is stupid regardless.

(29 Oct 2025, 10:51 pm)Storx wrote Yeah can't disagree with the top bit if I had to be honest.

Agreed with the coaches aswell, I always think there should be a proper North Northumberland express personally and have it hourly with the X15/X18 Northern bits on it so those travelling further get more luxury.

You'd probably have to make it completely non stop between Morpeth and Newcastle though and ideally Morpeth and Alnwick (but that would need extra services). 

A coach from Seahouses to Newcastle etc would be popular imo and the X18 double back is stupid regardless.

I agree that a review of the long distance Northumberland services should be looked at, perhaps with the County Council and the NECA. Ideally it should be a mix of catering to tourist and commuter traffic to and from Newcastle from Morpeth, Alnwick and Berwick with faster services and providing good local links for communities in between.

(29 Oct 2025, 11:08 pm)solsburian wrote I agree that a review of the long distance Northumberland services should be looked at, perhaps with the County Council and the NECA. Ideally it should be a mix of catering to tourist and commuter traffic to and from Newcastle from Morpeth, Alnwick and Berwick with faster services and providing good local links for communities in between.

Yeah defininitely, mind I assume there's some technical reason why it can't but I'm really surprised the X18 to Berwick hasn't been bolted onto the X15 shorts by now.

It'd be interesting for a trivia question if there's a bus route in the country which has a longer double back (30 minutes). It just doesn't make sense, at all, imo. Surely it must be quicker to get off the X18 and hop on the X20 anyway if it hasn't gone because in typical UK transport the X20 leaves 3 minutes before the X18 gets there anyway...

Re the 306 307 308 309 around 1545 1620

Off memory there is severe delays due to daytime works being done on the coast road so it was down to one lane going out of town which has had a knock on effect all day with a mix of football home game (believe it or not a lot of fans take early flyers in their cars to get home before getting bus to town etc)

I was stuck in those queues and I ended up getting the Nexus 350 which was "full" and caught my connecting service 10mins later having both left the interchange the same time

One of the 72 plate Enviro 400's is at Blyth but tracking as 1415, don't know which yet. Not seen any others yet

7501 ticket machine is also in use on a 72 plate today.

7579 is the one tracking as 1415

2603 is on the 777, seems to have interworked off from the 57s.

Wonder how the X's interworking with the 777 will affect the Saturday pattern with the Wooler run & 419 thrown into the mix. I'm not sure if there's any height restrictions on the 419 route that would restrict a DD being used on there?

Regarding the mini Solos on the 57, it's not ideal to have them on there given how busy quite a few of the trips can be, although there isn't really anywhere else for Arriva to use them aside from the 1/2 & if the SRs aren't in service, these can't be withdrawn yet.

If 2601 - 2603 are still transferring to the North West, should we expect 3051/3052 to be in service at Ashington. Also any news on if Solo 3050 will see the road again? The SRs are Euro 5 so would restrict them from anything into Newcastle, although would be suitable for the 1/2/57/57A when not being used on the 415/434/460...

(03 Nov 2025, 7:31 pm)S830OFT wrote Regarding the mini Solos on the 57, it's not ideal to have them on there given how busy quite a few of the trips can be, although there isn't really anywhere else for Arriva to use them aside from the 1/2 & if the SRs aren't in service, these can't be withdrawn yet.

If 2601 - 2603 are still transferring to the North West, should we expect 3051/3052 to be in service at Ashington. Also any news on if Solo 3050 will see the road again? The SRs are Euro 5 so would restrict them from anything into Newcastle, although would be suitable for the 1/2/57/57A when not being used on the 415/434/460...

3052 is at Redcar

Yeah 3052 should be coming down to Ashington but maybe they'll wait until 3051 is back on the road.

(03 Nov 2025, 11:21 pm)Bob5666 wrote 3052 is at Redcar

3052 isn't at Redcar, it's at Ashington in the Northumberland Line Connections livery

(04 Nov 2025, 1:19 pm)busesofthenortheast wrote 3052 isn't at Redcar, it's at Ashington in the Northumberland Line Connections livery

Technically you are both right and wrong at the same time - 3052 is still at Redcar, but has now been wrapped in the Northumberland Line Connections livery ahead of its transfer to Ashington to replace the Solos.

(04 Nov 2025, 1:19 pm)busesofthenortheast wrote 3052 isn't at Redcar, it's at Ashington in the Northumberland Line Connections livery

Actually  Redcar were getting it sorted  and I got shown photos  !!!

There is a lot of vehicles wrong tracking on bustimes. 7518 tracking at Ashington but wrongly, what vehicle is this really? Also what is the Ashington spare.

Looks also like Blyth have 7532 and Ashington have 7636.

(04 Nov 2025, 1:49 pm)Kuyoyo wrote Technically you are both right and wrong at the same time - 3052 is still at Redcar, but has now been wrapped in the Northumberland Line Connections livery ahead of its transfer to Ashington to replace the Solos.

Honestly my bad, I thought 3052 was at Ashington getting done but I was wrong until my friend Josh sent me a photo of it at Redcar.

(08 Nov 2025, 11:28 pm)busesofthenortheast wrote Honestly my bad, I thought 3052 was at Ashington getting done but I was wrong until my friend Josh sent me a photo of it at Redcar.

I'm sure it'll be broken again soon anyway.

Those Solo's are complete junk. No doubt it's just another one soon to add to Ashington's very long list of Solo's they've received and broke. Noticed the one at Darlington, is dead aswell now.

(09 Nov 2025, 12:07 am)Storx wrote I'm sure it'll be broken again soon anyway.

Those Solo's are complete junk. No doubt it's just another one soon to add to Ashington's very long list of Solo's they've received and broke. Noticed the one at Darlington, is dead aswell now.

Actually 3052 is the best one  it was the most active one out of the two

3053 as always been a trubblesume one

(09 Nov 2025, 8:18 am)Bob5666 wrote Actually 3052 is the best one  it was the most active one out of the two

3053 as always been a trubblesume one

Aye it's Ashington though, and Ashington and Solo's don't go well. It's like a game of how many Solo's can we send there to sit around, 3051 being really really bad.

Arriva haven't always helped themselves by getting rid of the better Solo's just because they were older. Eg 2812 was very reliable at Ashington right up until the end, and 2837 they had for a while was good but as they were 08 plate they left and some of the 59 plates like 2855 was way worse.

2601 - 3 are not that bad for reliability, although sometimes when they do go out they can be out for a long time. Probably 2602 best, then 2601 and then 2603 slightly worse. 3051 so far has been very poor. Even before the 3 month absence it was poor.

Long term I think Arriva need to decide if they want to run these type of minibus services. If they do they should put in a bid for more services than they currently have like the 19 or the Morpeth locals and as such this would justify investment in more newer minibuses, perhaps the 72 plates when Darlington are done with them, or just let them go as it seems pointless to keep bringing in these dodgy minibuses which have no use on their commercial services and they are not going to bring in anything decent just for super quiet services like the 415. Though at least 3051 and 52 are not quite as small as 2601 - 3 so may have more use on the 57 or the 1 and 2 if both are ever available at the same time so have a spare. I don't know really, just as a regular user of the 57 I am a bit fed up of the long line of dodgy minibuses

(10 Nov 2025, 3:05 am)Arriva7446 wrote Arriva haven't always helped themselves by getting rid of the better Solo's just because they were older. Eg 2812 was very reliable at Ashington right up until the end, and 2837 they had for a while was good but as they were 08 plate they left and some of the 59 plates like 2855 was way worse.

2601 - 3 are not that bad for reliability, although sometimes when they do go out they can be out for a long time. Probably 2602 best, then 2601 and then 2603 slightly worse. 3051 so far has been very poor. Even before the 3 month absence it was poor.

Long term I think Arriva need to decide if they want to run these type of minibus services. If they do they should put in a bid for more services than they currently have like the 19 or the Morpeth locals and as such this would justify investment in more newer minibuses, perhaps the 72 plates when Darlington are done with them, or just let them go as it seems pointless to keep bringing in these dodgy minibuses which have no use on their commercial services and they are not going to bring in anything decent just for super quiet services like the 415. Though at least 3051 and 52 are not quite as small as 2601 - 3 so may have more use on the 57 or the 1 and 2 if both are ever available at the same time so have a spare. I don't know really, just as a regular user of the 57 I am a bit fed up of the long line of dodgy minibuses

What’s actually up with 3051? I’d assume it will see service again at some point but how soon will that be?

(10 Nov 2025, 2:26 pm)ReDemPTiion wrote What’s actually up with 3051? I’d assume it will see service again at some point but how soon will that be?

Not sure unfortunately. There are so many breakdowns at Ashington that I wouldn't be surprised if they don't have time to deal with the long term stuff, and are just constantly doing small repairs to keep as many buses on the road as possible. 7564 has been out for ages also, not sure when that or 3051 will be back. I am sure they will want 3051 back as without it they would have to put a full size bus on the 434 on a Saturday (as 3052 would be needed on the 415) and the rest of the week 3051 could do the 57 meaning an extra full size single available.

---

Actually it looks like 7564 did come back after 2 months out, but only for 2 days, then again bustimes could be wrong on that. I haven't seen it in person.

(11 Nov 2025, 8:19 am)Arriva7446 wrote Actually it looks like 7564 did come back after 2 months out, but only for 2 days, then again bustimes could be wrong on that. I haven't seen it in person.

Wrong ticket machine, was 1512 I believe. 

7564 has been having retarder issues for around a year at this point, if not longer, hence the constant spells of local work and long periods VOR. It seems to be an intermittent issue from higher speeds, hence being okay on the 1/2 then immediately going back off again after a couple of days on the express work.

(11 Nov 2025, 9:43 am)PH - BQA wrote Wrong ticket machine, was 1512 I believe. 

7564 has been having retarder issues for around a year at this point, if not longer, hence the constant spells of local work and long periods VOR. It seems to be an intermittent issue from higher speeds, hence being okay on the 1/2 then immediately going back off again after a couple of days on the express work.

It's tracking again today, but it's definitely false again. I think its a 57 plate Enviro instead today. 

That seems a very long time for the same issues. Hopefully they are looking for a permeant fix, but until then it might be worth swapping with one of the ones at Blyth. Most of the Blyth stuff is not that express so it might do alright there.

1419 as transferred from Stockton to Ashington to replace 1394 1419 is a permanent move

(12 Nov 2025, 2:22 pm)Bob5666 wrote 1419 as transferred from Stockton to Ashington to replace 1394 1419 is a permanent move

Well 1419 is obviously gonna be permanent if it's transferring to Ashington to replace 1394 so that leaves 1415 being the only pulsar 2 at Stockton in MAX base livery

Hearing on Facebook that some vehicles have failed emissions standards for Newcastle CAZ, and as such have moved from Blyth to Ashington and are doing the local services 1 and 2 and 57. 7636 is one, 7502, 7506. Not sure if this is true.