(15 Jun 2024, 9:27 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote Interesting, didn't know that. Don't think I've ever been through the tunnel on a bus but had wondered in the old days of manned ticket booths etc how that worked with PSVs!
Nowadays it’s all based on vehicle registrations which are on a whitelist so are exempt from paying fees. Given the frequent movement of buses between depots, I understand entire fleets are exempt (even if they aren’t operating on the cross-Tyne Nexus contract).
When the barriers were there, northbound buses were supposed to use a specific lane, “scan” a tunnel permit box (given to operators of the cross-Tyne contract), and then go through that barrier. From memory it was the second from right lane on northbound journeys (southbound being through the bus lane). I recall a number of occasions where the boxes didn’t work and drivers simply told the tunnel operatives on the radio that they were a Go North East bus on the 9 (or whichever service number it was at that moment in time), and they’d be let through.
Must be a considerable amount of revenue which TT2 are forfeiting from bus operators since the move to the whitelist!
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