Sunday 16th
15.12 X18 Berwick Rail Station to Morpeth Bus Station ANE 7532
I arrived in Berwick about 3PM, and made my way to the train station to catch my usual 15.12 X18 back down to Morpeth. It should arrive from it's northbound journey around 15.07, but generally arrives a minute or two early. At 10 past, it still hadn't arrived, so I had a look at the Live Map to find it was approximately 8 minutes late. A few minutes later, I heard 7532 power around the corner and down the bank, I sat upstairs at the front, and we left about 6 minutes late, falling further behind as we made our way through Berwick. Out of Berwick, and after Scremerston, 7532 absolutely flew, keeping up with cars with ease on the A1. By Seahouses, even though we picked up a good 20 passengers at Bamburgh, we were pretty much back on time. Unbelievably impressed at how this handled the hills, and tight bends on this route, much like all of this batch, it seems to have an incredible amount of power. Drivers changed at Alnwick, and due to some idiotic car drivers in Alnmouth, we started to run late. We were quickly in Morpeth, after a thoroughly enjoyable journey. I got picked up by a friend, as 7532 made it's way down to Newcastle.
Monday 17th
10.38 X22 Bedlington Market Place to Newcastle Haymarket ANE 7505
I headed to Durham on Monday morning with a good friend of mine, so I'd managed to get a lift to Bedlington to catch the X22 to Newcastle. 7505 was my ride, it turned up about 5 minutes late, but I was very impressed with it, especially it's performance on the A1068 and the A1 where it performed very well indeed. The plugs weren't working which was a slight disappointment, as I needed to charge my phone, however the company more than made up for that
It was a pretty comfortable journey, temperature wise especially, considering how hot it was outside. For a journey that would have left Ashington at around 10, it was very busy, especially downstairs, which was quite good to see. We arrived in Newcastle bang on time, before we headed to Eldon Square to board the 11.20 X12 to Durham, hoping anything but a Gemini turned up, I kept a look out while walking from Haymarket...11.20 (11.27) X12 Newcastle Eldon Square to Durham Bus Station ANE 1415
Nothing showed in the short walk between the bus station, and as 11.20 approached, it looked increasingly unlikely that, whatever was meant to turn up, wasn't going to turn up on time... 20 past came and went, but just before 25 past a Pulsar pulled up at the traffic lights, YES!! I was spared, at least until the afternoon, from death by Gemini. 1415 was my chariot, and on the whole I was very impressed by it's performance, although there was a loud squeeling noise while accelerating up to speed, however as it reached anything over about 40, this went away. As we entered Gateshead Interchange, the various GNE liveries got my attention, but some brands really did puzzle me, such as ""Fab Fifty Six" I can't help but think a corporate livery with some simple route branding would serve better, than pointless brands just for the sake of it- which is what it looks like from the outside, in my opinion anyway. The 'TTX' does look very smart though, it's been quite a long time since I've seen it in the flesh, and is still very eye catching. As we moved further toward Durham, I noticed a lot of 'Angel' branded B5's, I never realised how frequent the 21 was! Loving the 'Angel' livery as well. 1415 pulled into Durham bus station at 12.15, bang on time.
Walking off 1415, into the bus station, my initial impression was "why have I came here", the bus station, and the street immediately off it, until the bridge next to the shopping centre, reminded me of Ashington and Blyth. Across the bridge however, was a completely different story, having only ever visited this side of the river in all of the times I've been to Durham, bar once quite a few years ago now, it was lovely and what I remembered Durham was like!
16.21 X12 Durham Bus Station to Newcastle Eldon Square ANE 7618
As we walked back into the bus station, after a thoroughly enjoyable time in Durham, we checked to see which stand the X12 departed from, 'A' was the answer, as there were buses occupying the adjacent stands, it was hard to see what our vehicle was, praying it wasn't a Gemini, we walked up, and 7618 stood in stand A
There were about 10 people already queueing, and we departed at 16.21. This trip seemed to go far faster than the journey down, and 7618 seemed to cope with the route very well indeed, lacking that bit of acceleration in places, but on the whole it was okay, there were a few things that annoyed me, and I'm not sure if it's just me, but I'm not really a fan of the interior of any Wright Gemini, compared to an E400 anyway, it just doesn't seem as well put together. We arrived in Newcastle late, meaning that as we pulled up to the traffic lights opposite Haymarket, 7504 left on the 17.19 X21, meaning a 20 minute wait for me.17.39 X21 Newcastle Haymarket to Stakeford(?) ANE 7528
After missing the 7504 on the 17.19, a 20 minute wait for 7528 followed, 7506 was leaving on an X22 as we arrived at the bus station. Seconds after 7506 passed through the traffic lights, 7528 pulled into the stand. 7470 pulled into the adjacent stand on an X20, which we followed through Gosforth, until we turned off to go through Wide Open and Seaton Burn, with it going for the A1, which I think may have been the better bet, as we got stuck in traffic through Wide Open, cars clearly avoiding the A1, which looked to be quite clear through a break in the trees. Running 7-8 minutes late at Seaton Burn roundabout, we were only 2 late by Bedlington, which is credit to the driver and 7528, it didn't half shift, reminding me on why I'm a fan of these E400's. We got off at Stakeford, (I think, can't fully remember the stop name), and said goodbye.
18.53 X21 Stakeford to Bedlington Red Lion ANE 7522
After saying goodbye, I waited for my bus back to Bedlington, for my lift home. As my phone had ran out of juice by this point, I had no clue where it was, and had about 10 minutes waiting at a place I've never caught a bus from before. It showed up on time from what I could tell, and 7522 was my last ride of the day. A fairly uneventful journey, but I find these Enviro's very nice places to be, I'd sooner spend a day on one of these than one of those VDL Gemini's, from the lighting, to the colour scheme and general materials used. The plugs weren't working on this one either, where's 7524 when you need it!! I got off at Bedlington, to end an incredible day
Thank you for reading, hope I didn't bore you to death midway through, may be heading out again on Saturday, so I'll try and get another review done then if this one is okay, again cheers for reading!!