After being busy having nights out and being sick in the last week or so I finally got to have a proper outing today.
0727 7 Newton Aycliffe - Durham North Road (ANE 1523)
0850 X12 Durham Bus Station - Newcastle Eldon Square Bus Station (ANE 7620)
1013 X18 Newcastle Haymarket Bus Station - Morpeth Bus Station (ANE 7531)
1108 2 Morpeth Bus Station - Bedlington Station, Clayton Arms (ANE 1758)
1156 2 Bedlington Station, Clayton Arms - Blyth Bus Station (ANE 1769)
1238 X9 Blyth Bus Station - Newcastle, Barras Brdige (ANE 4501)
1505 X10 Newcastle, High Level Bridge - Stockton, Church Road (GNE 6047)
1626 X66 Stockton, Yarm Lane - Darlington Tubwell Row (ANE 1425)
1740 5A Darlington Tubwell Row - Newton Aycliffe (ANE 1427)
The day got off to a bad start with me having a nosebleed but it went off before I went out. To fit in some stuff in Morpeth and also a few other things I had to leave early to ensure catching them, unfortunately things got off to a bad start with 1523 turning up nearly 15 minutes late so of course we ended up having to virtually pick up two loads of passengers all the way to Ferryhill when we were pretty much full and the next 7 (an Enviro 400) caught us up. There was also another 7 in front of us (1515 I think) which I think was screened for Framwellgate Moor so I'm wondering if this was a duplicate or not? Thankfully not too much traffic at Nevilles Cross so we only arrived in Durham 10 minutes late (from North Road as this was a Framwellgate Moor journey).
Did some photo taking in Durham but unfortunately most didn't turn out well apart from a Toon Link on the extra 43 run into Durham. Somehow my next bus (7620 on the X12) managed to sneak into the bus station without me noticing so I almost missed it. Not a overly exciting journey really just sat there and pretty much zoned out on this journey until we got to Gateshead where despite leaving Gateshead Interchange 2 minutes early we ended up arriving in Newcastle Eldon Square 5 minutes (so about 18 minutes from Gateshead - Newcastle).
Thanks to the X12 arriving in Newcastle late I missed the X16 to Morpeth. So to kill some time I made use of the facilities in Eldon Square and then saw 644 on service 45 so went out for a quick photo. After getting that photo I made my way to Haymarket Bus Station, crossed by the traffic lights between Eldon Square and Haymarket although I couldn't be bothered waiting for the lights to change and there was nothing coming so I went for it but had difficulties getting round the people who were prepared to wait until the lights change and I ended up with brute force accidently smashing my camera into the box thing on the traffic light and I went totally ape about this seriously I was loudly shouting and swearing I was that angry about this then ended up having to spend my time waiting for the X18 ensuring the camera still worked by taking photos of my shoes. 15 minutes late the X18 arrived in Haymarket and left about 10 minutes late so I ended up 25 minutes behind which didn't amuse me. 7531 performed brilliantly including on the A1 and before we knew it, we were in Morpeth. Annoyingly the delay meant I missed the PCL Travel 79 but thankfully I hadn't missed the Glen Valley service 710.
To ensure getting a photo of service 434 I ended up getting the 2 to Bedlington Station to get a photo there, MPD 1758 was operating this journey on service 2 and although now looking a bit worn inside this has to be one of the best MPDs I've been on in a long time, I even have to say I actually enjoyed this journey.
Got to Bedlington Station and all I could think is "oh sweet Jesus, what the hell is this place" this area looked a right dump and the people looked chavtastic, safe to say I was taking more care of my camera than I was in Newcastle this morning. Whilst waiting for the 434 I snapped 5246 on the 19 (or should I say block 1 because the screen had a fault - see photo https://flic.kr/p/A2VqbY) was annoyed the next service 2 arrived just before the 434 so I thought I was going to have to spend another 10 minutes here but thankfully it was early so I snapped 1769 on the 2 and 6117 on the 434.
Managed to get to 1769 on the 2 just before he drove off so this was my steed to Blyth, not the best MPD I've been on and the headrests look well battered now. Not really a great deal else to say about this journey. Not a lot going on in Blyth to talk about, went to lunch (Greggs of course!) and snapped the buses including Pulsar 1502 which has been refurbished to MAX which made me happy. Had to think which route I was going to get to Newcastle, 7458 had 308 on the screen but if it was on the 308 to Newcastle it wasn't leaving just yet so for fears I was going to get another VDL Gemini I decided to go for 4501 on the X9.
Decided to sit in the quadrant seats on the drivers side for this journey even though the seats were a bit worn and there was a rather rotten looking banana on the floor. Quite enjoyed this journey as 4501 was brilliant, pretty smooth and felt fairly powerful as well. Not really a busy journey this was, fair few hopping on/off across the route although some stayed on longer. Bailed at Barras Bridge and went on a bit of a snapping session before my next journey.
Ended my snapping session by walking down to High Level Brdige stop for the X10, although the StreetDeck wasn't on the TTX this afternoon I decided to still go for a ride on the X10 mainly because I realised I still didn't have a photo of Proctor's Coaches (Dales & District) service 610R and it was probably a good idea to snap it this week as it won't run next week due to it only operating in term times and it will be dark by 17:30 the week after and I'm not sure how to use the camera at night yet, also I was informed of a new addition to the Dales & District fleet in the form of a silver 60 reg Solo, so I'd thought I'd check that out. Anyway back to the X10, not really a exciting journey, just find going down roads like the A19 a tad boring thankfully the WiFi worked to that kept me amused. These B9TLs sound a bit more tired to the other examples in the fleet so I can see the TTX getting new stock in the next year or two, but will it be the StreetDeck?
Had 20 minutes to kill in Stockton before the X66 so got a few photos and also headed to the Arriva Travel Office to pick up the new X66/X67 and S1 timetables, whilst waiting at the stop for the X66 someone was wondering if the X66 was still defiantly still stopping at this stop so I said it was and briefly talked about the changes happening from Sunday, I have mixed feelings about the upcoming X66/X67 changes but one thing I am strongly in favour of is the stand changes on Darlington bound journeys with journeys leaving from both ends of the High Street instead of Yarm Lane which as well as not having to walk from one end of Stockton High Street to the other if you get the X7/X10 I will no longer have to wait in the squalid hell hole that is Yarm Lane, I am actually fearful waiting at that stop at times because the people you see down there are usually drunk and creepy. Couldn't access the stop on the Live Map so had to just wait and see how long until it would turn up.
Thankfully I managed to get Pulsar 1425 on the X66 to Darlington which made me happy as Pulsar's seem to be faster down the A66 than the Omnicity's and also sound a bit less rough and on this journey the additional capacity was nice and no backwards seats. Annoying traffic was a bit slow at Harrowgate Hill (temporary traffic lights didn't help) so I think we may have been a few minutes late back into Darlington.
Got photos in Darlington then made my way for my bus home which was 1427 on the 5A and in typical 5/5A fashion it was late although at least that meant we didn't end up losing the will to live waiting for what feels like a lifetime at timing points as this timetable is stupidly timed (my opinion). 1427 seems to be one of the less "shaky Pulsars when stationary so this was not a too bad journey, especially with traffic between the town centre and Harrowgate Hill, despite the traffic pretty decent journey and a good way to round off the day.
Thanks for reading this review, it took quite a while to prepare this.
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