(15 Jun 2023, 9:03 pm)Rapidsnap wrote Favourite name survived into the Stagecoach era with even some Mercs arriving in Favourite livery instead of Stagecoach Stripes.
Heres a photos of N498RVK by John Law. https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmightycat/6086258881
A couple of Darts carried the livery too.
Alexander bodied K715PCN by John Law. https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmightycat/6036153252
Plaxton bodied M770DRG by John Law. https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmightycat/6086258877
Originally set up in response to TMS (Trimdon Motor Services) setting up routes in Tyne and Wear against established Busways routes at De-regulation under the Tyne and Wear Omnibus Company (TWOC) name in Sunderland and Newcastle. In response Busways opened a depot in the Durham area mainly using a fleet of secondhand Leyland Leopard from GMPTE still in their Manchester colours (hence why Favourite adopted the Orange livery (here is one of said Leopards in a photo by Ken Weaver https://www.flickr.com/photos/131962719@N04/49517451237). There were Leopards from elsewhere to bolster the fleet. However this came to ahead in 1989 when TMS sold TWOC and it's depot in Gateshead (these days known as Saltmeadows) to Go-Ahead Northern who then sold the vehicles and routes to Busways the very same day (Go-Ahead would lease Saltmeadows to Gateshead Council for a number of years as a base for them to repair their big wagon fleet). TMS would later be sold to Caldaire (Owners of United) in 1990.
Busways maintained a presence in County Durham under the Favourite brand name having won a number of contracts in the area as well as the services they were running were bringing in money still. They also used the TWOC name for a short while on various minibus / small bus routes before the Sunderland part of TWOC were replaced by Favourite whilst the Newcastle part of TWOC were absorbed in to Blue Bus Services.
Despite the Stagecoach takeover in 1994, the Favourite name and livery persisted for contracted routes in the Sunderland Area and Country Durham, effectively the low cost unit for Sunderland depot. Not sure when their County Durham outstation disappeared though. The livery eventually disappeared around 1997 I believe. Some of the low cost routes operated by Favourite (14/14A/139/140) were then sub-contracted to Redby Buses in 1998 originally using buses painted in Stagecoach stripes (like this Marshall bodied Volvo B6 by Peter Barclay - https://www.flickr.com/photos/27204054@N07/3239187324) until this requirement was relaxed in 1999 where buses can be any colour Redby desired which was basically anything. Though Redby did briefly scale back the number of services it ran with two Darts being sold to Busways (32794/32795) and 5 Leyland Lynxes (Mk1 4817/4856/4857 & Mk2 4818/4819) & a Volvo B10B (4875) to Go North East before plodding along for a number of years before finally closing shop with vehicles being sold to Go North East of which only a Volvo Olympian was briefly used for a School Contract (9367 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...9611267078).
Anyway I've rambled on too much.
There was more than the Oly that operated for both Redby and GNE.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/27204054@N07/4443385686 here's one.
Favourite had their depot at Hetton Lyons off memory. Not sure if that was the same one that ended up being used by Veola.