To those saying about the older bus fleets compared to other areas I could imagine it's more to the way the North East is. Most bus routes are very one way at peak times ie. into town in the morning, out at the evening and carrying fresh air the other direction. There's not much you can do about that plus having the hospital and university in the centre aswell which doesn't help flow which isn't the same for Nottingham and Edinburgh - not to mention having the Metro aswell.
Blackpool and Lothian pretty much have a monopoly aswell.
All the flagshit routes pretty much in the north east have 2 directional flows for GNE;
309 / 310 - Cobalt / Newcastle
56 - Sunderland / Newcastle
21 / X21 - Durham / Newcastle
20 / X20 - Durham / Sunderland
X10 - Teeside / Newcastle
10 - Newcastle / Metro Centre
X66 - Gateshead / Metro Centre
Similar for Arriva
7 - Durham / Darlington
X66 - Darlington / Middlesbrough
308 - Silverlink / Newcastle
X7 / X8 - Newcastle / Quorum
64 - Durham / Arnison
The X10/X11/X21/X22 being the out ones out but the morning journeys out of town are dead and same the opposite way at peak times. It's the reason I guess why we have little bus routes in the evenings in some areas and only 2 night buses.
It's no wonder the North East in general don't make much money but it's just the layout the things are and there's not much you can do about it whereas places like Yorkshire have multiple cities / towns to connect inbetween Wakefield / Leeds, Leeds / Bradford for example so have 2 directional flows hence why we wont get as much investment as other areas.