It's late but here is my review of my trip to Whitby and Scarborough today.
The day got off to a bad start as I realised I hadn't charged the battery's for my camera so quickly had to put it on charge as the spare was pretty close to being flat. Then it got worse as I was late leaving the house so had to pick my feet up to make my first bus of the day.
0836 21 Newton Aycliffe - Sedgefield (ANE 4812)
Thankfully I made it, I chose to head to Middlesbrough via Sedgefield to get a change of scenery and add a bit more variety in terms of haulage with this being the first bus. Not a good start, the bus was making a buzzing sound whilst it was in motion for pretty much the whole journey so I was worried we weren't going to make it to Sedgefield but thankfully we got there in the end. This is probably the reason 1799 ended up out on the 21/X21 this afternoon.
0855 X12 Sedgefield - Middlesbrough (ANE 7619)
This is where the jokes come about the X12 always being late although this journey was actually on-time some of you are gasping at this I imagine. These aren't the best buses in the world but this has to be one of the better examples in the fleet, seemed okay in terms of speed, wasn't totally fast but it was okay. Pretty laid back relaxing journey on this where I made use of the free WiFi on this journey. We actually arrived into Middlesbrough a few minutes early so this gave me a few extra minutes to go the bog and run into Poundland for some provisions for the long journeys for the day then took my place in the queue for the X93.
0950 X93 Middlesbrough - Whitby (ANE 7487)
Thankfully we got a double decker for this journey which made me happy as this was rather a busy journey so would have been no fun on a Pulsar or Tesma. Quite enjoyed my journey on this, I thought it looked incredibly smart inside. I thought the bus performed not too badly considering this bus is now 13 years old and has probably had a hard life even before joining Arriva North East so was not that surprising that it wasn't the best on hills but I feel it did well for it's age. Sadly the WiFi didn't work on this bus so I ended up having to look at the view out of the window instead. Before I knew it we arrived in Whitby.
Got a selection of bus photos in the space of half an hour, some of which didn't turn out that well unfortunately. Then I headed to the bus stop to make my way to Scarborough.
1136 X93 Whitby - Scarborough (ANE 7401)
This was a surprisingly quiet journey so I had a fair few options of where to sit with me choosing to sit behind the stairs upstairs as I think on these examples this is probably the best seat for leg room upstairs. Thankfully the WiFi actually worked on this unlike 7487 so made sure to use it although I was still taking in the breath taking views along the route. This bus performed pretty well on this journey although I feel the driver probably could have drove a little faster than he did. The additional running time has improved the reliability of the service although it is a little annoying waiting time in places such as Robin Hoods Bay and Flask Inn. Quite enjoyed this journey and I think these are cracking buses.
Scarborough
Took a few photos of buses round by the train station where the X93 starts/terminates. After getting a few photos here I decided to see if there was any trains due at the train station but there wasn't really until around 1450 so I decided to head back then. I decided to head to onto the seafront for some photos of the open top buses and much to my delight Shoreline Suncruisers had two step entrance buses out on their 109's today and got decent photos of both of them plus another good few photos of both service 109's. I decided to have chippy for lunch where I went to Winkin' Willes (I imagine some of some are giggling now) so I went along eating my trips before sitting down somewhere out of the sun for a bit. Decided to head back towards the Town Centre but instead of walking back through the town centre I walked up to near where the Spa is and walked up the hill which comes out next to where that bridge is. After getting some good photos round here I headed to the train station where there was a First train heading to Liverpool and a Northern Rail service to Hull? Not sure what to make of these photos at the moment, the First train photo was probably not the best although this photo was made worse by someone washing the signs on the platforms. There seemed to be a young lad in the train station who also looked interested in trains whilst I was there. Got a few more photos around by the train station before making my way back to the X93 bus stop for my long, long wait for the journey back to Middlesbrough.
1655 X93 Scarborough - Middlesbrough (ANE 7404)
Took the front seat on this bus which meant I had a front row seat of the views and it also meant I ended up in someone's photo of this bus (not seen it yet). Another cracking journey on a B9 these are brilliant on this route. Used the WiFi again and took in the views although annoyingly the sun was in my face for much of this journey. Was not as busy as I thought it would be. I found the seats pretty comfortable on this journey. Good journey although rather long.
1912 X66 Middlesbrough - Harrowgate Hill, Elmcroft (ANE 4655)
Another MAX bus, driver put his foot down on this journey so we got to fly down the A66 on this journey. Pretty good journey on this and another bus I can use the free WiFi on offer. Not a great deal else to say.
1953 5A Harrowgate Hill, Ashleigh House - Home (ANE 1427)
And for my final bus of the day, pretty standard journey on a Pulsar, I do like them but I have done this route thousands of times on this bus but I still do enjoy them on this route. Nice to be back on a bus with fabric seats. Settled back and soaked in this journey home.
Well there you have it, that was my review from today. Being out in the warm sun all day has left me rather sun burnt which I'll be honest I hate but other than that it has been a pretty enjoyable day even though some of the photos didn't turn out how I wanted them to.
The photos from Whitby are now on my Flickr, the photos from Scarborough should be getting uploaded tomorrow (Friday 17th July).
Enjoy the rest of your evening, night, morning, afternoon - whenever your reading this!
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