(07 Mar 2023, 9:35 am)Andreos1 wrote The 301 has been like that since the 80s at least.
Someone may want to correct me, but it's been Kibblesworth along Saltwell Road, then Gateshead, then the Metrocentre when that opened, back to Gateshead, then a continued swap between Kibblesworth and Wrekenton via Durham Road or Gateshead and the Metrocentre ever since.

One advantage of the Metrocentre extension in the 90s, was that it had a slight variation and went along past Whickham Thorns and Market Lane. Immense at full-pelt on an Atlantean!

(07 Mar 2023, 10:28 am)Ex-conductor wrote GNE also merged the 1 with the eastern section of the erstwhile 85/86 between North Shields and Whitley Bay, taking the 1 through Marden Estate and giving a very indirect route between those two towns. Annoyingly the western side was covered by the W3, a Nexus-supported bus service for which the contract was at first given to GNE. The whole route of the 85/86 circle had been, at the time, a commercial service.
When the 1/85/86 merger took place, buses along the sea front between Tynemouth and Culleroats, ceased, as did buses along the full length of the Broadway between Tynemouth and Whitley Bay with the withdrawal of the 310.

It's interesting to note that, from a very good network of bus services in the North Shields/Tynemouth area once operated by the Tynemouth bus company, only two GNE routes will serve those areas after 26 March (the 1 and the 307).