(17 Apr 2023, 7:29 pm)Jonathan93102 wrote Hello all,

I’ve really enjoyed reading your posts about the Nexus changes. With regards to the 99 I had a relative who used to work at Redby. They had a number 9 service which ran from Seaburn Morrisons to Hylton Castle, it used to do quite well from what I was told. In Spring 2007 Redby made big changes and started a x2 circular routes from Seaburn Morrisons - the 9 & 99. The 9 would run from Seaburn to the City Centre via Roker and St Peter’s Campus, then up to the Royal Hospital and round through the Enterprise Park to Hylton Castle, Southwick, Fulwell and Seaburn. The 99 would do the opposite route. They brought in a Flat Fare for Adult Singles of £1 which proved very popular but I’m not sure if the routes were very successful. I heard Stagecoach retimed their buses to operate 10 mins in front of the 9 and 99, I’m not sure if this was true? They leased brand new buses ‘07’ plates for the new routes which were fantastic for the time.

In January 2008, Redby were bought out by GNE and GNE brought back the original 9 route but renumbering it the 99.

On a separate note regarding the current Nexus Service 558 run by Gateshead Central Taxis. The earlier journeys lately from Seaburn towards Heworth have been quite busy partly due to how many issues the Metro has been having between Sunderland and Pelaw.

Thanks.