Last week I went to the launch for the new Transdev Yorkshire Coastliner buses in York and beforehand decided I'd take a crack at getting some photos of them in service, unfortunately I decided to book my tickets for the train home about a fortnight ago and then I found out that only two would be in service to begin with, so basically I had a challenge on my hand of finding one but was I successful in my efforts? Read on to find out...
0727 Newton Aycliffe Rail Station - Middlesbrough Rail Station (Northern 142067)
My days starts with me, as ever! Arriving at Aycliffe Rail Station just in the nick of time to catch the train through to Middlesbrough (one of these days I will miss it!) my haulage this morning was in the form of bench seated Pacer 142067. I actually don't mind Pacer's and it's going to be weird when they are exiled from the Bishop Line in the not too distant future (it's weird enough getting a 156 in the summer on the Bishop - Whitby Sunday run). Normally when I get Pacer's the heaters are on full pelt and when it's -1 outside, that's what you want but instead the heating was on the roof instead of being down by your feet and seemed to be just for show really, was freezing! Arrived into Middlesbrough at around 08:15.
0830 X10 Middlesbrough Bus Station - Stockton High Street (GNE 6043)
Arrived into Middlesbrough Bus Station and concluded that it was still a bit dark, a bit cold and a bit boring to be standing around in Middlesbrough Bus Station for 55 minutes until my next bus was due, so decided to kill some time with a trip to Stockton. Decided to catch 6043 for the first half of this journey, this bus was lovely and warm, unlike 142067!!! Also enabled me to charge my phone up a little bit. These examples have a bad rep at the moment for breakdowns and sounding rough, on this journey we made it to Stockton without breaking down but it was sounding pretty wounded (rough) possibly the worst sounding example I've been on.
0841 X12 Stockton High Street - Middlesbrough Bus Station (ANE 7620)
This was the first bus I saw after alighting from 6043, so rather than wait for something more exciting, I just went with it, pretty boring journey really with little to say of interest. After alighting I ventured into Poundland for some provisions for the day, pleased most Poundland's seem to have self service tills now as I now usually get in and out the shop quicker now, unless you go to the Eldon Square one where you always seem to get stuck behind the people who are crapping themselves as they have no clue what they are doing, also self service tills don't moan at you when you show up with a £20 note
0920 X93 Middlesbrough Bus Station - Whitby Bus Station (ANE 7405)
Managed to stay out of trouble with the security in Middlesbrough Bus Station today as I got a telling off for taking that photo of a repainted E300 27506 the other day (was inside taking the photo through the window) shame on me, I know. Anyway, 7405 sounding in a much better state than GNE 6043 was earlier. Pretty standard journey really. As we were arriving into Guisborough, I spotted a unidentified Sapphire X3/X4 StreetLite on the X93 which would be an hour behind 7405 if it wasn't removed in Middlesbrough, I am intrigued to see how one would perform on the X93 but it would mean having to ride one to find that answer out.
1100 840 Whitby Bus Station - Thornton-le-Dale (Transdev 426)
No B5 on this run, irritatingly it was my stalker on the Coastliner's, 426 which I've have had on the two previous trips on the 840 over this stretch of the route. Another B9 that sounds in much better nick than 6043 and personally has a much smarter interior than both 6043 and 7405. Was hoping for a B5 for this run as I wanted to see how it faired on the hills on this stretch of the route. Still a pretty decent performer and nice and comfortable to travel on as well.
1205 128 Thornton-le-Dale - Pickering (Scarborough & District 741)
Yet another B9, this one wasn't the nicest sounding example either and although the seats at the back are well padded, they are a bit hard. After this short run, I grabbed some sausage rolls from Cooplands and returned for a few more photos of yet more B9's before catching the next Coastliner.
1304 840 Pickering - Malton Bus Station (Transdev 424)
Another B9 but thankfully one I hadn't had haulage on previously. This was also new territory for me as the furthest I've gone on the 840 is Thornton-le-Dale, so it was nice to see more of the route. A smooth performer although it didn't seem like we were going particularly fast tbh. Alighted in Malton for some photos of more Coastliner's plus a few Stephensons of Easingwold Enviro 200's.
1415 840 Malton Bus Station - Thornton-le-Dale (Transdev 3631)
1458 840 Thornton-le-Dale - York Rail Station (Transdev 3631)
Found one! Fortunately one of the Transdev staff lurking around Malton Bus Station informed me one would be on the 14:15 departure to Thornton-le-Dale whilst I was around taking photos, otherwise I'd be on another B9 and no doubt would have let out audible swears when it went past shortly after leaving Malton Bus Station. Amusingly the timetable states that this is not a journey that should use a B5. As I wanted to see what one of these would be like on the route, I decided to double back on myself to Thornton-le-Dale then head through to York where I had a booked train to catch. Some of you may be sick of comments like these towards Transdev but the interior specifications on most of the newer (plus some older) Transdev buses are in my opinion superior in terms of comfort and appearance to what is on offer from the big boys here in the North East, I was on this bus for 2 hours and at no stage in this journey, the seats made me feel uncomfortable, think I may dare say that they are the best seats I've ever come across in a bus, like the wood effect and black panels which I feel work together well, most of our buses seem to be blue and drab. Performance and ride quality, well it is limited to 50mph which is a bit of a shame but it sat reasonably happy at 50mph, there was a few minor squeaks and rattles but that's standard really. I personally feel that offers a pretty smooth ride unlike the StreetDeck's which I personally feel has a rougher sound and ride to them. Pretty impressed on the whole, although I'd still rather have a B9. Photographed the bus in Malton, Thornton-le-Dale and York.
1654 York Rail Station - Darlington Rail Station (Virgin Trains East Coast 91125)
My parents were saying that this train will be busy, it's be packed, full of Christmas shoppers... WRONG!
It was actually pretty dead really (or at least it was in the quiet carriage). This is another one I'm going to miss one the railways, over the last year I've been travelling much further afield using the train which is something I'd not done previously and have quite enjoyed it, think the Class 91's have to be a favourite of mine, other nods go to the HST's, TransPennine's 185's even if they are bit small and I also enjoyed a ride on a East Midlands Trains 158 to Skegness in the summer, meanwhile I ain't a fan of Voyager's and I wasn't keen on either a Class 150 or Class 155 belonging to Northern. Back to today, a nice ride back through to Darlington on this, was nice and quiet and better still, this one doesn't stop at Northallerton, so roughly a 25 minute journey between York and Darlington.1728 Darlington Rail Station - Newton Aycliffe Rail Station (Northern 142067)
Whilst it would have been nice to have a different Pacer to this one again, I was thankful that this was what turned up as the 2+3 bench seating layout was a godsend as it was quite busy on here. Wonder how many of the people on this train use the train even on a occasional basis as when we got to Aycliffe I had about 8 people stood in front of me staring at the doors expecting them to open themselves, some of whom could see the buttons, in the end it's left to someone in the know to press the button to free us all, that would be me!
Pretty successful trip out and pretty enjoyable and it was very stress free as well. Will be out a few more times over the Christmas break.
Hope you enjoyed the review, it took ages to type it all up.
Here's my photo of 3631 at Thornton-le-Dale.
![[Image: 31588290641_8bf16822b5.jpg]](https://c2.staticflickr.com/1/672/31588290641_8bf16822b5.jpg)
Transdev Yorkshire Coastliner: 3631 / BT66MVO by Matthew Jimmison, on Flickr