After having a cold for the last week I was wanting an outing today, problem being I didn't know where to go, so I kind of just winged it.
Here's the log, but do read on to see what happened over the course of the day and what influenced my decisions etc.
1011 8 Newton Aycliffe Town Centre - Ferryhill Market Place (ANE 1508)
1039 113 Ferryhill Market Place - Spennymoor, Cheapside (Scarlet Band MX10DXK)
1053 6 Spennymoor, Cheapside - Durham Bus Station (ANE 1527)
1145 128 Durham Bus Station - Beamish Museum Entrance (GNE 5419)
1222 28 Beamish Museum Entrance - Birtley (GNE 4957)
1246 21 Birtley - Chester-le-Stree, Front Street (GNE 3962)
1322 50 Chester-Le-Street, Front Street - Washington Galleries (GNE 5260)
1335 85 Washington Galleries - Concord Bus Station (GNE 606)
1358 4 Concord Bus Station - Houghton-le-Spring (GNE 5367)
1437 20A Houghton-le-Spring - Sunderland, Park Lane (GNE 3979)
1615 X21 Sunderland, Park Lane - Ryhope Village (ANE 4812)
1630 22 Ryhope Village - Durham Bus Station (ANE 7538)
1752 7 Durham Bus Station - Newton Aycliffe (ANE 1513)
Decided I wanted to start off with a change of scenery, so I opted to get the 8 to Ferryhill. Was a little annoyed to get 1508 as I was hoping for 1463, 1465 or 1466 which have recently transferred to Darlington from Belmont but I can't seem to catch them and always get lumbered with the same examples over and over again, almost every 5/5A I've been on recently I've had either 1462 or 1498. This was a rather slow journey especially as we were stuck behind a tractor, the end result was us arriving in Ferryhill 7 minutes late. Waited in Ferryhill where I was planning on getting either the 56 to Durham or 113 to Spennymoor but the 56 chucked up a Solo so I opted for the 113 which was an Enviro 200 so I had the "joy" of Urban90's seating.
Today was my first time on the 6 since it was upgraded to Sapphire and this was quite a nice bus, although in typical Arriva fashion there was some issues with the next stop announcements, the main one being the stop for New Elvet where the letters doubled in size meaning it was off the end of the screen.
Waited in Durham for something interesting, so I went for 5419 on the 128 which was in no way interesting at all. Pretty steady away journey which was boring, made even worse by the fact I couldn't access the WiFi. Digging up an old argument but you can say all you want about the Civic 3 e-leather seating being the same that Arriva have for it's Sapphire buses but I still don't think they are as comfortable on GNE buses than Arriva's Sapphire buses, just seems harder to me whereas Arriva's feel softer, was having this discussion last weekend in Edinburgh with some forum members and we all agreed with this. Was very confused when I saw a Lolyne enter Beamish Museum, was hoping for something spectacular to photograph, nope it was there for a driver change on the 128. From Beamish I hopped on the 28 to Birtley where I abandoned ship and switched to the 21, it seems like I never get an Angel Hybrid on the 21 and today was no exception although at least today I got treated to 3962 instead of a President.
After stretching my legs for a bit in Chester, I got 5260 to Washington Galleries and dear lord I hated 5260, sat in the seats by the emergency exit door the engine or whatever was deafening me and I just found it a totally awful journey and Washington couldn't come soon enough! At Washington I decided to get the 85 to Concord as I didn't fancy a Solar on the 2 to Sunderland. From Concord I got the 4 to Houghton where I had the slight nervousness as to where to get off with the road closures due to Houghton Feast, but thankfully I was fine.
At Houghton I had a choice of either 5217 or 3979 both on the 20A to Sunderland, I decided to go with 3979 to add to the variety and I'm not a fan of the Prince Bishops Solars as they do rattle a fair bit. 3979 getting up Houghton Cut, oh dear! it was terrible and to make it even more embarrassing we were overtaken by a Fast Cats Solar, that's how bad it was! Just as we were getting to Sunderland, out of the corner of my eye I spotted JH Coaches ALX300 displaying "Sunderland University Open Day" honestly didn't even think of this so I made my way down to Chester Road for some photos.
Decided to head for the X21 to head all the way back to Aycliffe but 2 minutes into the journey I saw Sapphire Enviro 400 7538 go past on the 22, when the 22 was interworking with the 24 during the Millburngate works I wanted to sample a E400 on this route but never really got round to it so I don't know why but I made the decision to bail from the X21 and get the 22 all the way to Durham, some of the next stop audio announcements on this route are terrible "See Ham" was quite bad but there was quite a few sniggers (not just from me) when see said "the next stop is... More Cock!" By Sherburn Hospital the novelty of being bounced around on an E400 wore off and was looking forward to be off. Was pleased to get 1513 home on the 7.
Today was a bit of a mixed day, with me enjoying some things but not others. Anyway thanks for reading
RE: Bus Related Outings and Reviews