As usual, my journey log can be found below and my commentary follows it:
0636 Metro: Stadium of Light to Heworth - T&WM 4021
0718 X10: Heworth to Middlesbrough - GNE 6044
0850 X93: Middlesbrough to Whitby - ANE 7486
1036 X93: Whitby to Scarborough - ANE 7402
1250 X93: Scarborough to Middlesbrough - ANE 7401
1512 X66: Middlesbrough to Darlington - ANE 4649
1607 7: Darlington to Durham - ANE 7540
1720ish 20A: Durham to Sunderland - GNE 5211
1820 9: Sunderland to Newcastle Road - GNE 5152
I'm very much set in the routine of getting up anywhere between the hours of 05:00am and 06:00am now, as it's usually the time I wake up to get into work sharp on a weekday. Today was no exception, waking up at five on the dot, with the sound of heavy rain pelting against my window. After much contemplation, I decided to brave it.
I set out for the Metro with plenty of time, and found a more-or-less empty Metrocar pull up on-time promptly. I'd been on this particular Metrocar coming home from work the day prior, so knew I wasn't in for too bad a journey. This one is fitted with the new style of Next Stop Annoucements; I must say that I am quite keen on the new male voice, as the old female voice was a bit too robotic in my opinion. I quite like the "Please take care at the level crossing" messages, but one major negative is the fact that "Central Station" is merely named "Central". I am not sure if this is some sort of Geordie nickname, but I've never called the station by the latter name...
Upon arrival at Heworth, I disembarked the Metro which had barely filled up on my journey of just under 20 minutes, and headed upstairs to the bus station. Thankfully the weather was on my side by this point, and the rain had stopped. It allowed me to get some photos while waiting for the X10 service which would take me south.
As we pulled out of Heworth, we were greeted with a heavy downpour of rain. It was so bad that it was almost impossible to see through the upper saloon windscreen, and it sounded like the roof was going to cave in. I suspected there would be a long journey ahead, as the drivers with double decks on the X9/X10 services usually have to take extra care in adverse weather conditions, so I put my earphones in and put my phone on charge.
Much to my surprise, the journey seemed to fly by. We were soon at Stockton, and even had a few minutes waiting time! Not long after, we pulled into Middlesbrough. It's great when there aren't any issues on the A19, as you could time your watch by the X9/X10. The rain was pretty light at this point, so I narrowly avoided getting soaked again.
Next on the agenda was a trip to Whitby. The queue, as always, stretched right back through the bus station. It wasn't quite as long as usual, though I suspect this was related to the poor weather conditions and the fact it was the first bus of the day. As the first bus of the day is operated by Redcar, I didn't expect a Volvo B9TL, but I was pretty happy with a Volvo B7TL turning up nevertheless. The discussion of whether Arriva would allocate a double-deck or single-deck seemed to be a common topic of conversation in the queue, so most were relieved when 7486 pulled in five minutes prior to departure. I had debated in my mind whether there would be any fuss over my pass when boarding; to date, I haven't had any bother, but you do get some drivers who give a thorough inspection. The driver simply asked what my pass was, and when I told him, he shrugged his shoulders, laughed, and told me to sit down. I guess the unfamiliarity with our passes is due to the fact that so few will use the X93 bus down south.
After a few photos and a bite to eat in Scarborough, I decided to head back to the bus stop. Compared to the X93 I had travelled on to get to Scarborough, the one I was going to get back was on-time. Although the bus was in a right state, the performance impressed me. The Volvo B9 should have been introduced to this service a long time ago - it's just a shame power sockets and more comfortable seats weren't included within the refurb when the dealer stock examples were acquired! This journey was much better than my inbound trip - the sun came out, and there wasn't a great deal of passengers on at all.
Back in Middlesbrough, I took a few photographs in the sun while waiting for my connection to service X66. The driver and accompanying member of staff on the X66 gave me a wave as they passed, and I put my camera away and headed over to the stand after this. I was quite vocal about my disliking for the interior colourscheme of the MAX spec Omnis when they were first refurbished, but I am perhaps getting used to it now, as I don't think it looks horrific. The installation of Next Stop Announcements has probably been noted, but I was quite surprised to see them there. What's more, I was surprised at the lack of corporate identity and design on the Next Stop Announcment monitor. A plain black screen with white text and a small Arriva logo which can barely be read from the back of the bus? There was a few announcements which didn't sound right at all, and the volume seemed way too quiet in general. Of course, I had been deafened by the bell as soon as we got to Stockton... For the record - I still prefer the regional accent of the radio DJs to whoever this Arriva woman is..!
The sun came out to play for some photos in Darlington, which I was really pleased about. Thought it was typical that it's been lovely all week then it gets to the weekend and it was horrible. I've been wanting to have a ride of one of Arriva's (now not so) new ADL Enviro400s on service 7 since they entered service, so I planned to get that to Durham if an E400 was allocated. If it wasn't an E400, I planned to get the 21/X21 back to Sunderland.
I ended up going with the former plan, and 7540 did the honours. I found that this one was quite sluggish compared to the Pulsars I had become accustomed to on this route, but I do prefer the double-decks. The extra capacity was not required on this journey and I had the upper saloon to myself for most of the trip to Durham, but I do think the extra capacity will come in handy on weekdays at peak times. I quite like the front seat on the offside upper saloon, as it has plenty of legroom. The journey flew by, and I was in Durham in no time.
My final trip of the day was from Durham to Sunderland. I'd seen a Volvo B9TL was allocated earlier in the day and I was quite keen to get this back, but sadly (as it is a corporate liveried vehicle), it was allocated to a board which finishes quite early on. The Scanias on here are a bit boring to ride on long journeys (I've done this particular journey more times than I'd have liked to recently), but they certainly do the job. When I arrived at Park Lane, I saw the MAN EcoCity I would have had all the way from Darlington, so I was glad to have been able to get two different bus types in within the same amount of time. I abandoned ship at Park Lane to get the 9 home - it departs two minutes before the 20A! Added to the variety, and as Marcus will gladly inform you, no bus-related outing is complete without a Volvo B10BLE..!
After twelve hours on the go, I am quite tired now. I think I will upload my photos tomorrow morning and then decide whether to go to the bus rally or not.
I look forward to reading what you guys got up to today - and hopefully you enjoyed reading what I did while out and about today!