(12 Jan 2014, 12:18 pm)aureolin wrote I think someone (andreos1?) has touched upon this before, and that it may be related to the former limestone mining around the areas it serves between Consett and Chester Le Street.
I was at GNE when the orbit design was thought up and it as designed to be a sister brand to The Loop! As it orbits the extremes of Gateshead. The b7s originally allocated were cascaded from The Derwent Ranger which, simply vanished afrer having there hard urban seats taken out of them and replaced. Ironically these vehicles found there were back on in form of Toon Link I believe. Toon Link seems another pointless brand as it could include almost every bus that goes into Newcastle!