(02 Jun 2019, 1:50 pm)Malarkey wrote

They would still be making money if they were still put in normal passenger service alongside the vehicles which usually operate those routes. As mentioned in my previous post Lothian seem to have great success with these sort of running days with enthusiasts coming from all over the country for there open days.

I think it would be a great idea to keep some of them for "Special Events" throughout the year if restored to there old guise.

I don't think you could compare this suggestion to what Lothian do. Lothian are running, on the most part, vintage buses on these occasions. The Solar isn't a vintage bus, and as far as most customers would see, its just an 'owld banger' turning up instead of their regular bus.

Lothian duplicate their services that they're running vintage buses on. Now I get some of that is for accessibility reasons, it does come with a cost: fuel + hourly rate for the driver, at the very least. If it wasn't ran as a dupe, then you'd have the problem described above.

I get the sentiment of the suggestion, but really, this is a niche market.

(03 Jun 2019, 6:34 pm)GNE6312 wrote

Go north east should prehaps try doing yearly open days like lothian and Stagecoach C&NL. They could do it sometime during the summer and have a mix of modern and preserved buses. The event will be held at riverside depot.

At the events all modern viechle on display will be open to look around however the preserved ones are only to be opened when the owner wants them to be.

The modern buses will include buses from all 5 gne depots but EYMS and HNW

The activities will include bus wash rides on the Modern viechles and also getting your name put on the display boards of the modern viechles


Would be a great day in my opinion.

A shuttle will operate between The depot and Gateshead interchange every half hour

One shuttle an hour will be operated by a modern viechle and the other a preserved viechle

 Go north east has done this before for Riverside opening but it woukd br great to try this again on a yearly basis.

Not sure why you'd need to run a shuttle between the depot and Gateshead Interchange, when there must be 10 buses an hour going to Gateshead and another 10 going to Newcastle? Not to mention the Metrocentre Interchange being a 5 minute walk.

That being said, it is probably a more realistic idea than the original suggestion.