Which fares changing?
Almost all adult single fares in Tyne & Wear, County Durham and Northumberland will remain at £2.50, though some short hop fares will be less than this. Journeys into Teesside on service X10 and journeys into Cumbria on service 681 will still be capped at £3.

The tables below shows the prices for our one day and multi-day tickets from 2 Janaury 2026.

https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/changes-fa...nuary-2026

(17 Dec 2025, 10:57 am)Michael wrote Which fares changing?
Almost all adult single fares in Tyne & Wear, County Durham and Northumberland will remain at £2.50, though some short hop fares will be less than this. Journeys into Teesside on service X10 and journeys into Cumbria on service 681 will still be capped at £3.

The tables below shows the prices for our one day and multi-day tickets from 2 Janaury 2026.

https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/changes-fa...nuary-2026

An All Zones ticket is now £130 a month!? 

In comparison, you can travel on any bus in the Greater Manchester area for £80.

Apparently, next year ( not sure of when) the Tyne and Wear Day Rover is to be dissolved altogether, (Nexus decision) with the TNE £7.50 will remain/in place of . , which is a better ticket altogether

(17 Dec 2025, 11:26 am)Adrian wrote An All Zones ticket is now £130 a month!? 

In comparison, you can travel on any bus in the Greater Manchester area for £80.

An All Zones ticket that doesn’t get you into all zones as you’re charged an extortionate amount of money if you need to travel on the X10. And they wonder why ridership is down.

The price of buses in general are shocking lately;

They're so obsessed about banging on about £2.50 / £3.00 fares which might be cheap, if you're travelling from Consett to Newcastle.

The problem is the same fare from somewhere like Newcastle to the Swallow Hotel in Gateshead is also £2.50 and there's no realistic weekly/monthly tickets which is getting that any cheaper for a basic return.

If you're working 5 days a week, that's £100 a month (£98 due to T&W ticket). It's not cheap or good value, at all.

(Respect it's an extreme example that)

(17 Dec 2025, 11:26 am)Adrian wrote In comparison, you can travel on any bus in the Greater Manchester area for £80.

You can travel on any regional train, bus, metro and tram across the whole of Germany for €58 

I still don't understand why we aren't subsidising something like that, over single fares imo. Mind maybe not as extreme though, maybe the £80 mark instead which is equivilant of someone making 3 returns every week maybe, give or take?

(18 Dec 2025, 9:54 pm)Storx wrote You can travel on any regional train, bus, metro and tram across the whole of Germany for €58 

I still don't understand why we aren't subsidising something like that, over single fares imo. Mind maybe not as extreme though, maybe the £80 mark instead which is equivilant of someone making 3 returns every week maybe, give or take?

The difference, of course, being that Germany regards public transport as something that helps people get around in an efficient manner, whereas the UK regards it as something you can use to make profit out of those who have no alternative .....

(18 Dec 2025, 9:36 pm)Storx wrote The price of buses in general are shocking lately;

They're so obsessed about banging on about £2.50 / £3.00 fares which might be cheap, if you're travelling from Consett to Newcastle.

The problem is the same fare from somewhere like Newcastle to the Swallow Hotel in Gateshead is also £2.50 and there's no realistic weekly/monthly tickets which is getting that any cheaper for a basic return.

If you're working 5 days a week, that's £100 a month (£98 due to T&W ticket). It's not cheap or good value, at all.

(Respect it's an extreme example that)

This is the point I made when the capped fares first came out. It's a complete lottery with our bus network on whether or not it's a value for money product for you. Introducing this without a hopper-style mechanism was a mistake.

The biggest issue with weekly/monthly tickets is that there's so much waste associated with them. I'd say the vast majority of those who were commuting daily in 2019 are no longer doing so. 5 days a week in an office is a thing of the past, and most have agreements of either 40% or 60% office attendance. This is another example of where the bus industry are engrained in the past though, and they've completely failed to grasp how the world of work now works.

Sure, there's the 'Flexi 5' product on offer, it's priced in such a way that you completely lose any value in what you previously had by purchasing a 28 day ticket. What's really needed is a larger bundle, e.g. 20 or 30 tickets, with a suitable discount applied. 

(18 Dec 2025, 9:54 pm)Storx wrote You can travel on any regional train, bus, metro and tram across the whole of Germany for €58 

I still don't understand why we aren't subsidising something like that, over single fares imo. Mind maybe not as extreme though, maybe the £80 mark instead which is equivilant of someone making 3 returns every week maybe, give or take?

Because as a Country we seem to know the cost of everything but the value of nothing. Look at Crossrail (or even the Northumberland Line) for example; everyone was moaning about cost, being a waste of money, what we already have been sufficient etc, yet once open and people are using it, no one ever talks about the cost anymore.

I think there's also a snobbery towards public transport in particular, and it stems from Thatcherism. A lot of vocal people view it as a dirty, inconvenient and desperate way to travel, so even something as simple as a bus lane is seen as a waste of money. We never apply the same critique to roads, e.g. the hundreds of millions spent on the Coal House improvements, Tyne Tunnel 2, the Coast Road, .... the list goes on.

(19 Dec 2025, 10:25 am)Adrian wrote This is the point I made when the capped fares first came out. It's a complete lottery with our bus network on whether or not it's a value for money product for you. Introducing this without a hopper-style mechanism was a mistake.

The biggest issue with weekly/monthly tickets is that there's so much waste associated with them. I'd say the vast majority of those who were commuting daily in 2019 are no longer doing so. 5 days a week in an office is a thing of the past, and most have agreements of either 40% or 60% office attendance. This is another example of where the bus industry are engrained in the past though, and they've completely failed to grasp how the world of work now works.

Sure, there's the 'Flexi 5' product on offer, it's priced in such a way that you completely lose any value in what you previously had by purchasing a 28 day ticket. What's really needed is a larger bundle, e.g. 20 or 30 tickets, with a suitable discount applied. 


Because as a Country we seem to know the cost of everything but the value of nothing. Look at Crossrail (or even the Northumberland Line) for example; everyone was moaning about cost, being a waste of money, what we already have been sufficient etc, yet once open and people are using it, no one ever talks about the cost anymore.

I think there's also a snobbery towards public transport in particular, and it stems from Thatcherism. A lot of vocal people view it as a dirty, inconvenient and desperate way to travel, so even something as simple as a bus lane is seen as a waste of money. We never apply the same critique to roads, e.g. the hundreds of millions spent on the Coal House improvements, Tyne Tunnel 2, the Coast Road, .... the list goes on.

Think you’re comparing apples and pears with the bus lanes vs road infrastructure mind.  The obvious difference being the reality (inconvenient as it may be for some).  There are plenty of car journeys meaning (once the improvement works are done) a large proportion of the population gain a significant benefit.  Compared to bus lanes where there are ever fewer scheduled services using them, running to fewer places, less often – and which may or may not turn up and get you from A to B without breaking down.  The reason people see bus lanes as a waste of money is that there are so few buses on the road to use them even compared to 10 years ago let alone the peak after deregulation.  And that downward trend has been sustained and increasing over that time, so highly unlikely to change with or without bus lanes.  Increasing priority for something that runs so poorly and infrequently (and for some expensively) as is the case in many parts of our region is very likely just wasteful.

(18 Dec 2025, 9:36 pm)Storx wrote The price of buses in general are shocking lately;

They're so obsessed about banging on about £2.50 / £3.00 fares which might be cheap, if you're travelling from Consett to Newcastle.

The problem is the same fare from somewhere like Newcastle to the Swallow Hotel in Gateshead is also £2.50 and there's no realistic weekly/monthly tickets which is getting that any cheaper for a basic return.

If you're working 5 days a week, that's £100 a month (£98 due to T&W ticket). It's not cheap or good value, at all.

(Respect it's an extreme example that)

Just as extreme is the £2.50 for the short hop between Fram and Arnison or the city centre, using GNE. Arriva are only charging £1.70 for those journeys.

(19 Dec 2025, 4:27 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote Think you’re comparing apples and pears with the bus lanes vs road infrastructure mind.  The obvious difference being the reality (inconvenient as it may be for some).  There are plenty of car journeys meaning (once the improvement works are done) a large proportion of the population gain a significant benefit.  Compared to bus lanes where there are ever fewer scheduled services using them, running to fewer places, less often – and which may or may not turn up and get you from A to B without breaking down.  The reason people see bus lanes as a waste of money is that there are so few buses on the road to use them even compared to 10 years ago let alone the peak after deregulation.  And that downward trend has been sustained and increasing over that time, so highly unlikely to change with or without bus lanes.  Increasing priority for something that runs so poorly and infrequently (and for some expensively) as is the case in many parts of our region is very likely just wasteful.

You've largely reaffirmed my point. Whilst I agree with some of your criticism around buses, it's still that snobbery towards public transport (and active travel, for that matter) that questions every penny of investment. You simply don't get that with other infrastructure projects. 

If we're going to encourage more people to use public transport or active travel modes, then it has to be a lot better, doesn't it? I don't blame private car owners for not wanting to use it in it's current state and cost, but that doesn't mean that investment in that infrastructure isn't important to build it to a point where people are happy to use it.

The Northumberland Line, which I mentioned in my previous post, has been a real success story for the region. Politicians prepared to take a financial gamble on the benefits reported, yet it's completely exceeded everyone's expectations. So much so that the Council is being inundated in enquiries about development alongside the line. There's dozens of places across the region that you could do the same and achieve results.

(19 Dec 2025, 4:27 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote Think you’re comparing apples and pears with the bus lanes vs road infrastructure mind.  The obvious difference being the reality (inconvenient as it may be for some).  There are plenty of car journeys meaning (once the improvement works are done) a large proportion of the population gain a significant benefit.  Compared to bus lanes where there are ever fewer scheduled services using them, running to fewer places, less often – and which may or may not turn up and get you from A to B without breaking down.  The reason people see bus lanes as a waste of money is that there are so few buses on the road to use them even compared to 10 years ago let alone the peak after deregulation.  And that downward trend has been sustained and increasing over that time, so highly unlikely to change with or without bus lanes.  Increasing priority for something that runs so poorly and infrequently (and for some expensively) as is the case in many parts of our region is very likely just wasteful.

Appreciate it's going off topic from fares, but bus lanes are meant to look empty. 

Based on current frequencies, are there any current examples of bus priority measures that should be removed?

(19 Dec 2025, 10:25 am)Adrian wrote This is the point I made when the capped fares first came out. It's a complete lottery with our bus network on whether or not it's a value for money product for you. Introducing this without a hopper-style mechanism was a mistake.

The biggest issue with weekly/monthly tickets is that there's so much waste associated with them. I'd say the vast majority of those who were commuting daily in 2019 are no longer doing so. 5 days a week in an office is a thing of the past, and most have agreements of either 40% or 60% office attendance. This is another example of where the bus industry are engrained in the past though, and they've completely failed to grasp how the world of work now works.

Sure, there's the 'Flexi 5' product on offer, it's priced in such a way that you completely lose any value in what you previously had by purchasing a 28 day ticket. What's really needed is a larger bundle, e.g. 20 or 30 tickets, with a suitable discount applied. 

Totally agreed on the monthly tickets, mind maybe instead of flexi tickets, maybe the price of a 28 day ticket should come down instead?

If the vast majority of customers are only using the bus 3 days a week, then maybe the pricing of the weekly and monthly tickets should be adjusted to support that or somewhere in between, at least. 

Tbh though the whole pricing system sucks, personally I wish we'd divide the North East in a number of zones, and pricing is set based on that, ie one zone £1.20, two zone £1.50 and so on with it being clear what the zones actually are unlike now where it's not clear, at all, with a new day ticket replacing the £2.50 fares (maybe £6?). It means people can use their initiative whether that's better value or not and those making short journeys or hopper journeys aren't being punished for the sake of someone making a journey like Berwick to Newcastle who should be paying £5.00 for a single which would still be bloody good value (obviously there'd be the £3 cap thanks to national government).

(19 Dec 2025, 5:43 pm)inAdrian wrote You've largely reaffirmed my point. Whilst I agree with some of your criticism around buses, it's still that snobbery towards public transport (and active travel, for that matter) that questions every penny of investment. You simply don't get that with other infrastructure projects. 

If we're going to encourage more people to use public transport or active travel modes, then it has to be a lot better, doesn't it? I don't blame private car owners for not wanting to use it in it's current state and cost, but that doesn't mean that investment in that infrastructure isn't important to build it to a point where people are happy to use it.

The Northumberland Line, which I mentioned in my previous post, has been a real success story for the region. Politicians prepared to take a financial gamble on the benefits reported, yet it's completely exceeded everyone's expectations. So much so that the Council is being inundated in enquiries about development alongside the line. There's dozens of places across the region that you could do the same and achieve results.

I definitely haven't reaffirmed your point.  

It isn't snobbery toward public transport.  It is reality based on decades of evidence of decline despite investment in bus priority measures and gimmicks (indeed, anything other than actual services really). The fact that investment in infrastructure has occurred alongside a terminal decline in service provision does not support the the notion that investing in more solid white lines is going to drive an improvement in the bus network.  There is a world of difference to road infrastructure where the benefit is (generally) plain for everyone to see and experience - just dismissing a different view to your own as snobbery is not how to have a sensible debate.

I don't know anything about the Northumberland Line but if that has been about opening up new links and providing actual services it is, again, like apples and pears to bus lanes.  If your argument was that investing in actual better (more frequent, direct, choice etc) routes then there would be a fairer analogy and I doubt many would argue.

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(19 Dec 2025, 7:29 pm)Kimlfixit wrote Based on current frequencies, are there any current examples of bus priority measures that should be removed?

Are there any in the region that have led to a demonstrable increase in overall quality of the network (e.g. increased ridership driving increased frequency, or new connections being introduced along these corridors)?

(19 Dec 2025, 9:42 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote I definitely haven't reaffirmed your point.  

It isn't snobbery toward public transport.  It is reality based on decades of evidence of decline despite investment in bus priority measures and gimmicks (indeed, anything other than actual services really). The fact that investment in infrastructure has occurred alongside a terminal decline in service provision does not support the the notion that investing in more solid white lines is going to drive an improvement in the bus network.  There is a world of difference to road infrastructure where the benefit is (generally) plain for everyone to see and experience - just dismissing a different view to your own as snobbery is not how to have a sensible debate.

I don't know anything about the Northumberland Line but if that has been about opening up new links and providing actual services it is, again, like apples and pears to bus lanes.  If your argument was that investing in actual better (more frequent, direct, choice etc) routes then there would be a fairer analogy and I doubt many would argue.

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Are there any in the region that have led to a demonstrable increase in overall quality of the network (e.g. increased ridership driving increased frequency, or new connections being introduced along these corridors)?

I don't know whether you live in an urban area, but from a sub urban area lack of bus priority is a serious problem as journeys are unbearably slow to the stage it's borderline unusable unless you have nothing better to do. 

There has been very little investment in bus lanes etc in the North East, and the vast majority of it, is a complete waste of money in the wrong place because it'd cause too much controversy to do it where it should be. The nonsense planned in Sunderland around Hastings Hill - is a prime example of that.

Places like the Coast Road near Corner House, Gosforth High Street, West Road, Chester Road, Stamfordham Road, around the Metrocentre etc being the sort of places I'm talking about here.

Google Brighton if you want to see somewhere which actually prioritises bus transport and there's examples where there's been big growth.

(19 Dec 2025, 9:42 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote I definitely haven't reaffirmed your point.  

It isn't snobbery toward public transport.  It is reality based on decades of evidence of decline despite investment in bus priority measures and gimmicks (indeed, anything other than actual services really). The fact that investment in infrastructure has occurred alongside a terminal decline in service provision does not support the the notion that investing in more solid white lines is going to drive an improvement in the bus network.  There is a world of difference to road infrastructure where the benefit is (generally) plain for everyone to see and experience - just dismissing a different view to your own as snobbery is not how to have a sensible debate.

I don't know anything about the Northumberland Line but if that has been about opening up new links and providing actual services it is, again, like apples and pears to bus lanes.  If your argument was that investing in actual better (more frequent, direct, choice etc) routes then there would be a fairer analogy and I doubt many would argue.

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Are there any in the region that have led to a demonstrable increase in overall quality of the network (e.g. increased ridership driving increased frequency, or new connections being introduced along these corridors)?

Sunderland Road Bus Link, A694 near Swalwell Roundabout, Great North Road/Blue House Roundabout, Team Valley Maingate roundabout, Wardley to Heworth off the top of my head have improved the journey experience.

However, because of the limited scope of bus lanes here and the UK in general, they've probably only prevented frequency reductions, rather than generate new services as the savings are small compared to the time needed to invest elsewhere. 

The political will for the number of bus lanes at the scale needed to have a tangible impact just isn't there.

(Yesterday, 12:38 pm)Kimlfixit wrote Sunderland Road Bus Link, A694 near Swalwell Roundabout, Great North Road/Blue House Roundabout, Team Valley Maingate roundabout, Wardley to Heworth off the top of my head have improved the journey experience.

However, because of the limited scope of bus lanes here and the UK in general, they've probably only prevented frequency reductions, rather than generate new services as the savings are small compared to the time needed to invest elsewhere. 

The political will for the number of bus lanes at the scale needed to have a tangible impact just isn't there.

If buses were a genuine, viable, affordable option - bus lanes wouldn't need to exist.

They're only there, because of the amount of cars on the road.