(06 Mar 2026, 5:44 am)F114TML wrote 655 is safe in private hands. 656 is long gone.
Brilliant news - will be great to see it back in Busways colours alongside the Fleetline and Dart some day. Always seemed a shame it just sat seemingly untouched at NEBPT for so long.
(06 Mar 2026, 4:41 pm)Adrian wrote Didn't 656 (or maybe another?) go to THV for parts years ago?
On the event stuff; I've seen the flack NEBPT have taken regarding only running their own stuff for this South Shields running day, and I can kind of see the point of view from both sides to the argument.
I can completely understand NEBPT wanting to test the water with something, and for that reason not want to entice others into a project that is at best riddled with issues. However, if that's their real reasoning behind it (and it's certainly what they appear to be suggesting on Facebook), then it concerns me that this hasn't been wholly planned and thought out.
On the flip side, I can understand preservationists and perhaps other groups feeling frozen out. A lot of work goes into the preservation, restoration, maintenance and general upkeep of these vehicles, and no one lengths of fully restoring a vehicle for it to sit in a shed in darkness. I understand the event calendar has been canned with little to no notice.
NEBPT, for whatever reason, seem to run a monopoly on events in the North East (minus Teesside/Tees Valley). I do think in part that's been allowed to happen because the expectation has been so low, leading to the continuous praise of poor events. This forum was at times heavily critical of the organisation, only to be shouted down at times. It was never going to improve under these conditions, and it's taken until the point of the organisers accepting that it's not working, for them to actually go back to the drawing board and do something about it.
In my opinion, this is something that should have happened 10 years ago.
I really think what is missing here is a proper liaison between all the stakeholders in running good events up here. That goes from groups, to individual owners/preservationists, the bus operators and local authorities. None of that ever feels like it happens, and I believe it's a large part of why events feel so underwhelming.
The 500 Group running day was one of the best events we've had up here. It was well attended and expertly organised from start to finish. You had a programme of bus times, understood the routes and could plan your day out from that. Those of us in this half of the region could learn a lot from that.
656 was at THV for a good while then I understand it passed to NEBPT for spares (presumably for 655). Fingers crossed the new owner manages to get 655 back on the road some day.
Likewise can see both sides of the argument but, end of the day, there's nothing stopping those complaining from sorting a running day themselves (as has happened in the South of the region with Yesterbus). There was frequent criticism on this forum that there were too many events meaning lack of quality, but does feel it's gone to the other extreme now, so hopefully South Shields is a success and something to build from.