(22 Jul 2014, 6:48 pm)northern156 wrote Arriva 185
Having just photted Stagecoach's 27766 on the only 685 a day to pass through Longbyre Village, I read in the notice board at Longbyre Shelter a small notice/letter to the local Councillor: (I have highlighted important parts in bold.

Dear Councillor Sharp

Following my phone call this afternoon, I confirm the situation regarding bus services 94, 185 and AD122 as follows:

Service 94 (Note this is service 95, but never mind)
This is run by Reay's Coaches. There is only one journey running in Northumberland, the 0850 Greenhead via Gilsland & Low Row to Brampton & Carlisle, Mondays to Saturdays. This will continue until further notice.

Service 185
This is run by Telford's Coaches under contract to Cumbria County Council, with a contribution from Northumberland County Council. The existing service will finish on 31st August [Note it will be Sat 30th], when the Cumbria County Council contract will end. From the same date, [Note it will be Mon 1st Oct Arriva will be operating some of the service commercially, and I will seek tenders from local bus operators for as much of the rest of the service as possible. The money I have available for this is the £1300 per month NCC currently contributes to the Cumbria CC contract - my aim will be to have as nearly the same service as at present. This would be until Easter 2015 to give us time to review the passenger numbers and decide on a permanent solution.
I would not be surprised if existing bus drivers start telling passengers that the service is ending altogether on 31st August and they either deny there will be any replacement or say they don't know. They may well blame Cumbria or Northumberland county councils or both. If this happens and worried constituents say to you they have heard the 185 is being withdrawn, feel free to reassure them we are doing all we can to keep as much as the service as possible.

Service AD122
The current timetable will run 7 days a week until 31st August, and then Saturdays and Sundays in September. It will run for the last time this year on Sunday 28th September. The AD122 has always been a seasonal service, however I have to admit in past years it has continued into October.
Please feel free to share all this with your constituents, Parish Councils in your constituency and anyone else who is concerned. Please do let me know if you have any queries, but Cumbria residents should however contact their County Council.

Regards


Ian Coe

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Now, read into this what you will, but the Arriva operating the 185 is the most important [hence why I've put it into this topic]. This, to me, is a very unexpected by move from them as I thought they were totally against running through here with the regular 685; let alone making up their new service!

I also noticed a timetable for the aforementioned service on the notice board:

Carlisle - Brampton - Gilsland - Greenhead - Haltwhistle 185
Mondays to Saturdays (except Public Holidays)



From 1st September 2014
Operated Arriva Northumbria


Now, what will Arriva use on this? Any form of double decker is out of the question due to the low bridge at Gilsland; and it uses a hell of a lot of back roads. I don't know about Omnicities as these are pretty long vehicles; in my eyes unsuitable for this.
I assume the first one of the day will have to come empty from Jesmond to Haltwhistle (a good 40 or 50 miles). The services do not sound like they are linked in any way; with the first of the day ending up at Carlisle at 10:41 with the next 185 leaving Carlisle at 13:24. This arrives into Haltwhistle at 14:30, with the next leaving Haltwhistle at 15:32 and arriving 16:41. Unless this then works the 17:07 685 (but then what would work that?!) it would have to come light from Carlisle to Jesmond - unless there is some other service coming into force from Arriva.



Thanks for reading this post if you have got this far. Just a bit of heads-up, if anyone knows more please share!
I'll definitely have the day off from work and will have to get the good old camera out.

Sean