(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.
Just to add a bit more detail to this for anyone who’s interested.
Favourite started up way back in Aug 1987 with a couple of services from Durham city to Easington Lane and West Cornforth with more added and extended/amended over the subsequent years up to 1989 – largely across County Durham and what is now the coalfields area of Sunderland, with extension as far south as Stockton at one point. The moved depots a number of times, staring out on South Hetton Road, then Pearson Industrial Estate then New Herrington Ind Est, before merging into the Wheatsheaf.
The first Sunderland town service to come under the brand was the 13/14 in 1990 (up to that point these had been Sunderland Busways routes based on the former TWPTE 113/114).
Favourite didn’t take over the TWOC services as such in Sunderland. They coexisted for a time, most of the E6—BVK minis getting TWOC names with the end of the batch carrying Favourite livery, and mostly used for the Durham/Seaham routes.
At the point of acquisition, TWOC operated Services 104, 107, 110 115, 116, 168 and X2 in the Sunderland area. Services 104 and 115 duplicated existing Sunderland Busways routes and were discontinued. Service 107/110 became Sunderland Busways services, replacing Busways’ own Service 110 (which was one of a number which had been set up to run TWOC out of business).
Existing Sunderland Busways Minibus Services 17, 21, 25, 31 & 115 together with Service 116 were transferred to the new Tyne & Wear Omnibus Company subsidiary. The only one of these to ever become a Favourite operated route some three and a bit years later was Service 31. Services 115 & 116 didn’t last long, while the 17, 21 and 25 went back to Sunderland Busways operation once TWOC was wound down, using the same TWOC liveried vehicles but with huge yellow Sunderland Busways logos applied. The 139/140 transferred from Busways to TWOC operated in 1991 but were never Favourite routes, again using the vehicles mentioned above after TWOC was discontinued, then became normal Stagecoach Busways routes (and then part of the Redby franchising).
In terms of the Favourite fleet in the end seven Darts carried Favourite livery (three from new) along with four N-reg Mercs (all from new) as well as the older Dodge minis and Leopards & coaches already mentioned. Once the decision was made to kill off the Busways colours in favour of the stripes, it became a bit of a free for all with the wrong colour/named buses all over the region so there were a number of Blue Bus Services coaches with Favourite names, as well as a couple of former TWOC minis (and e.g. Economic deckers with BBS names, Newcastle buses in Sunderland etc).
Technically the division became “Stagecoach Favourite” for a time though as far as I recall that logo only appeared on a handful of printed timetable leaflets and wasn’t carried by any vehicles (unlike Stagecoach Economic).