I've gone back to my usual format with the journey log first and the commentary following - read on if you'd like to:
0704 #20A: Newcastle Road to Park Lane - Go North East 5425
0724 #X7: Sunderland to Peterlee - Go North East 5336
0759 #X9: Peterlee to Middlesbrough - Go North East 6043
0850 #X93: Middlesbrough to Guisborough - Arriva North East 7424
0935 #468: Guisborough to ASDA Middlesbrough - Stagecarriage 22
1025 #64: Normanby Road to Redcar - Arriva North East 4721
1146 #X3A: Redcar to Skelton High Street - Arriva North East 1560
1246 #5: Skelton High Street to Ormesby Crossroads - Arriva North East 1557
1316 #9: Ormesby Crossroads to Middlesbrough - Arriva North East 1456
1405 #13: Middlesbrough to Stockton - Stagecoach North East 17029
1453 #X12: Stockton to Durham - Arriva North East 7626
1613 #X20: Durham to East Herrington - Go North East 5433
1732 #X1: Doxford International to City Centre - Stagecoach North East 28018
1759 Metro: Sunderland to Stadium of Light - Tyne & Wear Metro 4051
I started off the day on what now seems to be an inevitable: a Streetlite. Most enthusiasts hate them, and it's understandable why. Operators are buying them in their hundreds. This light-weight single decker is wiping out elderly heavy-weight single deckers up and down the country, and is partly responsible for the reduction in variety we see nowadays. They're certainly not my favourite buses but I've become accustomed to the rattles and see the benefits to the operator of having this vehicle type in their fleet: improved reliability, improved fuel economy, and greater income from additional BSOG payments. It's the way this industry works now, and while it's not so good for us enthusiasts, passengers see the benefits of brand new buses and their accompanying features, such as free Wi-Fi, power sockets and Next Stop Announcements.
At Park Lane, I met my connection to a vehicle type I much prefer as an enthusiast: the Mercedes Citaro. Four Mercedes Citaros are allocated to Peterlee Depot for "Wear Tees Xpress" service X7 - a demanding route with plenty of opportunities for the Merc to demonstrate how great a bus it truly is. Go North East fitted Wi-Fi to these four buses earlier this year though they have yet to gain the recognisable Wi-Fi 'blob' (odd on a route with competition!) I sat back, relaxed, and connected. The Wi-Fi worked flawlessly but I didn't look down at my phone too much, as I'd otherwise miss out on the marvellous coastal views from Ryhope to Dawdon.
Another modern-day favourite vehicle type for me is the Volvo B9TL, which I was connecting to at Peterlee on an X9 service. The Tyne Tees Xpress really pushes the B9s to the limit and it will be interesting to see what their replacement will be, when the time comes. I found it strange being back on the A19 in a bus now that I'm so used to driving up and down it in my car - but one thing remained the same: we were often in the fast lane overtaking cars and lorries! This journey didn't last too long, but I regretted my choice of seat upstairs at the front, as I spent most of the time being blinded by the low sun.
It looked like it was going to be a warm day, so I grabbed myself two bottles of Mountain Dew to see me through my next journeys. I was thankful to see one of the ex-London MAX Volvo B7s in the layover bays, as it meant I wouldn't have a cramped journey to Guisborough. It pulled onto the stand 10 minutes early to allow time for loading. I was impressed by how clean the bus was, inside and out, and you really couldn't tell the bus was 11 years old. Whilst I'm not a fan of the inconsistencies within the "MAX" brand, I do think the USB charging points on each seat is a nice touch. The offside upper deck ones didn't seem to be working but I moved seats and found that the nearside ones were. There's a handy little blue light which presumably indicates whether they are working or not - it'd be nice to see something similar on all vehicles with power sockets, to allow for faults to be identified and repaired more quickly.
We soon arrived in Guisborough (which actually couldn't come soon enough as an old woman downstairs had the entire bus smelling like a farm - nobody was best pleased!) I intended to get a photo of the Stagecarriage ASDA bus - a new contract commencing today for Stagecarriage, having previously been in the hands of Stagecoach. The sun came out just in time for the arrival of Stagecarriage 22, an Alexander ALX400.
Having never previously used the ASDA Middlesbrough service, I decided today would be the perfect day to do so. It was an even bigger winner, as I'd not previously sampled the ALX400 allocated. I took my seat upstairs at the front and enjoyed the views paired with Absolute Radio playing through the speakers on the bus. Makes a bit of a change from Next Stop Announcements, which is what usually comes from speakers on buses! Would highly recommend the service - even better that it's free!
I had a 10 minute connection after getting off which was ample time to head into ASDA for some sweets and run back to the bus stop for the 64 to Redcar. I was hoping that a Temsa Avenue would be the bus allocated given that it's so rare I actually get to use them. My luck was in: one of the 'new' Temsa Avenues acquired last year turned up. I found the interior to be a little dull - the native examples are brightened up somewhat by the Arriva fabric seat moquette, but the acquired ones have dark navy e-leather. The e-leather certainly didn't improve the comfort of the seats either. The power of the bus was impressive nevertheless - on par with (or possibly better than) the Mercedes Citaro I'd used on Go North East's X7 earlier in the day.
On arrival into Redcar, I looked into a few different possible journeys. I had the ultimate goal of getting to Stockton for 14:30 for a photo of the Stagecarriage 88 service. They allocated their recently acquired Dart - the first bus to be repainted into the company's new corporate livery - to this service from start of play, and I wanted to get a photograph of it. It would have been a bonus to travel there from Middlesbrough on the Stagecoach 13, which had been allocated a Dennis Trident. The journey I settled for was a trip to Whitby on the X4 with a tight connection to the X93 back to Middlesbrough, but the allocated bus was a Temsa Avenue and I hadn't quite recovered from the previous one at this point (those seats definitely aren't Sapphire standard)... I instead decided to sample another Sapphire service: the X3A to Skelton High Street. I'm usually one to suggest Arriva have nailed their internal presentation of their fleet, so I was quite surprised to see every power socket had "240V" written on in marker pen, and a yellow sticker above the socket (with no Arriva or Sapphire branding) advising the same thing. Alas; it looked quite unprofessional, but I was just pleased the sockets were working (highly unusual for a Streetlite!)
After quite a nice journey on the X3A, I decided to sample Stockton's Sapphire offering on the 5. By comparison to the previous journey I was quite disappointed - the power sockets weren't working, and the Next Stop Announcement display was rarely in sync with the audio. The bus was still smartly presented, though I noticed the absence of a 'text us' cove panel vinyl with the fleet number of the bus on it (which the previous Redcar example had).
I alighted at Ormesby Crossroads - I had time to kill and getting the 9 back to Middlesbrough would allow me to cross another vehicle type off the list: the VDL Pulsar. I'd just missed out on Stockton's 1512 on the 5 earlier, so had to squeeze one in somehow! 1456 was the bus which arrived to take me on this journey, and, again, I was really impressed by how clean and tidy the interior was. I especially liked the advertising posters for the MAX services on the cove panels - it was just a pity they were all for the X93, and there was none for the X12! The VDL Pulsars are quite fun buses with plenty of character - far superior than the Wright Streetlite in my opinion, even if the vibrations while idling are quite bad at the back of the bus!
Back to my plan now, and after taking a few photos in Middlesbrough, I boarded 17029 which was running around five minutes late. I shared the upper deck with two others and there was a nice cool breeze while the bus roared through the streets of Middlesbrough and Stockton. I find I always enjoy my journeys on these Tridents - I've been quite lucky to have sampled two in the past week! It wasn't long before we arrived at a very congested Stockton High Street and it was time to get off. Sadly I didn't manage to get a very good photo of 17029 due to all of the buses waiting to occupy a stand, and the awkward manoeuvre which 17029 had to undertake to get away.
I've never been on one of Stockton's Cadets before, so when I read in the Rare & Odd Workings thread that one was on service 7 to Yarm, I tried to fit it into my plan for the day. Sadly it arrived some 30 minutes later than I'd have liked it to, so I settled for a late-running X12 to Durham instead. The journey was great - there was only two other passengers upstairs on this VDL Gemini and all the windows were open so there was a nice breeze throughout. Approaching Leazes Bowl roundabout was a bit of a nightmare - the traffic was quite bad, which is presumably why the bus was over ten minutes late.
I alighted in Durham and got a few photographs. The bus station was as congested as ever, so buses were having to do loops around the bus station until a stand became available. I slowly made my way home from here, using the peak-time express X20 service to East Herrington and then the peak-time express X1 service from Doxford International to City Centre. I wouldn't usually get the opportunity to sample either, given that I'm usually at work in Gateshead at this time!
Having sampled buses from each of the big three, I thought it was only right to travel home on the Tyne & Wear Metro!
I hope you've enjoyed reading what I got up today - it'd be nice to see what others got up to today too!
