I'm sure the flywheels came from a retrospective grant.

I don't understand this B5LH nonsense will hills - the angels do hill sections along the X21 every evening and sundays with no problems at all!
Not directing this at you, but if there was such an issue with hybrids or non-B9 vehicles being on more "demanding" parts of routes, why would a depot allocate such vehicles?

This is an arguement that people always bring up about hybrids on the northerns, and I'm always short of finding the logic behind the argument.

Maybe I'm being ignorant of some important fact, but when a depot could be allocating streetlites or solars or whatever else is lurking (to a route with throughfares or whateve), it would pick the hybrid if there was fundamental problems with the terrain for the vehicle.

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Not saying that Hybrids / Lightweight can't cope with hills as they can. I'm more on about the fuel side of things. Surely it would make more sense in the case of a cascade to remove heavy duty deckers from a route with fewer demands where bigger fuel savings can be made.

If you look at the 310, bar the Coast Road and mainly between Station Road / Benfield Road, it's practically all estates. The 309 bar the Coast Road, Blyth Road and Links Road, it's again practically all urban areas with traffic hotspots around the Cobalt, at times Rake Lane as well as Whitley Bay Town Centre too.

Has the last remaining B10's been withdrawn from Riverside with the entry of more "The 49" Streetlites?

Has the last remaining B10's been withdrawn from Riverside with the entry of more "The 49" Streetlites?

Unlikely, the citaros that will most likely contribute to their replacement (perhaps not direct) will be away for refurbishment.

Unlikely, the citaros that will most likely contribute to their replacement (perhaps not direct) will be away for refurbishment.

Ah right, i just thought that GNE wouldn't want to send all the Blaydon Racers down at once because they're still doing the Durham Diamond ones, thought some would remain in service until a later date until they had room at Bus and Coach World but i'm going to be honest and say i'm not sure how many staff or how big the factory is at Bus and Coach World or the timescale, we also don't know when the first Citaro's will arrive back.

Has the last remaining B10's been withdrawn from Riverside with the entry of more "The 49" Streetlites?

No - just 4900, which is out of tax.

4898, 4899 and 4922 all remain in service at present.

Go North East: 4900 / V990ETN by Daniel Graham, on Flickr

No - just 4900, which is out of tax.

4898, 4899 and 4922 all remain in service at present.

Go North East: 4900 / V990ETN by Daniel Graham, on Flickr

Thanks Dan. =)


Go North East 
23 mins
Regrettably due to technical issues the 12:40 X10 from Middlesbrough will not be operating, we apologise for any inconvenience.

709 is the second Solo to arrive:

Go North East 709 / WK58 EAJ. by Guy Park-Royal, on Flickr

Bit close to that car, mind!
They look tiny, reminds me of Stanley Taxi's tiny SRs.

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Bit close to that car, mind!
They look tiny, reminds me of Stanley Taxi's tiny SRs.

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That was the first thing I thought! 


Can anyone confirm the capacity of these Solo's?

That was the first thing I thought! 


Can anyone confirm the capacity of these Solo's?

23 seats in total - though whoever sits on the front seats on the nearside will be very chilly whenever the bus opens its doors (or should I say door?)

Go North East: 0708 / WK58EAG by Daniel Graham, on Flickr

Go North East: 0708 / WK58EAG by Daniel Graham, on Flickr

Wonder if there's any mileage in Quorum funding the branding on one of these for the 554 contract

Wonder if there's any mileage in Quorum funding the branding on one of these for the 554 contract

Whats allocated to the 554?, does the bus not come from another route?, if it does, then there would be no point in branding it.

Whats allocated to the 554?, does the bus not come from another route?, if it does, then there would be no point in branding it.

I think it uses the same bus that runs onto the Byker ASDA contract so an MPD.

Wonder if there's any mileage in Quorum funding the branding on one of these for the 554 contract

554? Give your head a shake man. These are for the 21

554? Give your head a shake man. These are for the 21

Next gen omnicity!

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554? Give your head a shake man. These are for the 21

Not the 21A?! 

Some of the brands today look really dull and plain the inside of the bus hardly anything no inside branding the posters at front and thats it

Some of the brands today look really dull and plain the inside of the bus hardly anything no inside branding the posters at front and thats it

Not being funny or anything, but what else do you expect a bus to have inside for passengers, other than chairs and windows?

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Not being funny or anything, but what else do you expect a bus to have inside for passengers, other than chairs and windows?

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When GNE went big with their branding back in 2006, the branding was arguably a bit more wholehearted. The brand was continued internally, including themed coving panels and safety notices - which have since been dropped.

The best execution of a bus brand I think I've seen is Trent's 'Spondon Flyer'. Much more than just a livery, internally the seats are individually numbered and have a BOAC 'Speedbird' style logo embroided , mimicking a plane cabin. The coving adverts interwork flight/holiday themes throughout and the timetables describe 'Flight times'. Even the destination display en route states 'Come fly with me to......Spondon'. 

Catching a 'flyer' becomes an immersive experience for the passenger, the brand sticks in the mind and builds loyalty. It is useful of course that the brand has an appropriate meaning - it's a express bus to Spondon after all. 

There was a point were GNE seemed to be branding for the sake of branding. There's little point if it doesn't mean anything - I'm thinking 'Kingfisher', 'See it Do it' 'Showstopper'. I'd rather a strong corporate identity for peripheral routes and some strong, well executed, brands for core routes such as 'Angel', 'TTX' & 'Prince Bishops'.

When GNE went big with their branding back in 2006, the branding was arguably a bit more wholehearted. The brand was continued internally, including themed coving panels and safety notices - which have since been dropped.

The best execution of a bus brand I think I've seen is Trent's 'Spondon Flyer'. Much more than just a livery, internally the seats are individually numbered and have a BOAC 'Speedbird' style logo embroided , mimicking a plane cabin. The coving adverts interwork flight/holiday themes throughout and the timetables describe 'Flight times'. Even the destination display en route states 'Come fly with me to......Spondon'. 

Catching a 'flyer' becomes an immersive experience for the passenger, the brand sticks in the mind and builds loyalty. It is useful of course that the brand has an appropriate meaning - it's a express bus to Spondon after all. 

There was a point were GNE seemed to be branding for the sake of branding. There's little point if it doesn't mean anything - I'm thinking 'Kingfisher', 'See it Do it' 'Showstopper'. I'd rather a strong corporate identity for peripheral routes and some strong, well executed, brands for core routes such as 'Angel', 'TTX' & 'Prince Bishops'.

Kingfisher was to do with Watergate Park area and the rejuvanation of said birds I believe.
Seeitdoit - http://www.seeitdoitsunderland.co.uk/, it's an organisation.

I do get your point, but most brands have some purpose, somewhere.

Personally I see details such as seat numbering as superficial gimmicks. It's not premium - it's just trying to be. Of course you get wifi and that stuff, but the design I feel is completely irrelevant because it all looks the same when it comes to it. E-leather and floor lighting or cloth seats and generic plastic.

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Kingfisher was to do with Watergate Park area and the rejuvanation of said birds I believe.
Seeitdoit - http://www.seeitdoitsunderland.co.uk/, it's an organisation.

I do get your point, but most brands have some purpose, somewhere.

Personally I see details such as seat numbering as superficial gimmicks. It's not premium - it's just trying to be. Of course you get wifi and that stuff, but the design I feel is completely irrelevant because it all looks the same when it comes to it. E-leather and floor lighting or cloth seats and generic plastic.

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I don't think any branding necessary improves the passenger experience, or adds any sense of 'premium'. Branding should be there to build commercial awareness. Imagine someone was getting the bus for the first time from Newcastle to Chester-le-Street and they've been told there's an Arriva bus and an Angel bus. There's dozens of mysterious looking Arriva buses around Newcastle but the green bus with a massive image of the Angel on the side is clearly the one they need. If once on board, the new passenger is surrounded by reminders they are on the Angel they'll remember that's the bus to Newcastle. From then, they'll always use the Angel and never contemplate getting the X12. It's the same as ASDA using green and Tesco using blue for signs and uniforms in their stores - to implant the brand in the customer's mind.

When GNE went big with their branding back in 2006, the branding was arguably a bit more wholehearted. The brand was continued internally, including themed coving panels and safety notices - which have since been dropped.

The best execution of a bus brand I think I've seen is Trent's 'Spondon Flyer'. Much more than just a livery, internally the seats are individually numbered and have a BOAC 'Speedbird' style logo embroided , mimicking a plane cabin. The coving adverts interwork flight/holiday themes throughout and the timetables describe 'Flight times'. Even the destination display en route states 'Come fly with me to......Spondon'. 

Catching a 'flyer' becomes an immersive experience for the passenger, the brand sticks in the mind and builds loyalty. It is useful of course that the brand has an appropriate meaning - it's a express bus to Spondon after all. 

There was a point were GNE seemed to be branding for the sake of branding. There's little point if it doesn't mean anything - I'm thinking 'Kingfisher', 'See it Do it' 'Showstopper'. I'd rather a strong corporate identity for peripheral routes and some strong, well executed, brands for core routes such as 'Angel', 'TTX' & 'Prince Bishops'.

I agree re: pointless brands but SIDIS and Showstopper do/did have relevance (Showstopper being related to the Empire which I think was at one point on the route, and more importantly funded the branding!).

Poorer attempts for me were 'the NINE' and whatever the other brand was that was essentially silver numbers stuck on a tatty purple solar.  Silver arrows, green arrow, blue arrow are all a bit meaningless (I know silver arrows were designed off red arrows, but still).  Whey Aye Five O is just awful, as is Simplicity (though both do have some loose meaning related to the route - or did until the Five-0 was translated to 5).  Coast & Country as has been discussed previously would work if only it went to the coast.  Ten is dull but works, and I always thought Fab56 was weak - but clearly its effective as its one of the few originals to survive barely changed.  And don't get me started on indigo.

Other than those though, the remaining brands are pretty strong.  It's a shame if Blaydon Racers is being abandoned as a brand as it does have a lot of local meaning and works well for a bus service.

I agree re: pointless brands but SIDIS and Showstopper do/did have relevance (Showstopper being related to the Empire which I think was at one point on the route, and more importantly funded the branding!).

Poorer attempts for me were 'the NINE' and whatever the other brand was that was essentially silver numbers stuck on a tatty purple solar.  Silver arrows, green arrow, blue arrow are all a bit meaningless (I know silver arrows were designed off red arrows, but still).  Whey Aye Five O is just awful, as is Simplicity (though both do have some loose meaning related to the route - or did until the Five-0 was translated to 5).  Coast & Country as has been discussed previously would work if only it went to the coast.  Ten is dull but works, and I always thought Fab56 was weak - but clearly its effective as its one of the few originals to survive barely changed.  And don't get me started on indigo.

Other than those though, the remaining brands are pretty strong.  It's a shame if Blaydon Racers is being abandoned as a brand as it does have a lot of local meaning and works well for a bus service.

I don't think having a 'real meaning' has an impact on the effectiveness of a brand. The 'Blaydon Racers' as a name holds local historical meaning. But a quickly cobbled together vynal on the side of a mid-life Citaro doesn't engage the passenger/customer. Most passengers would have still identified the route as the 49 rather than 'the racer' - hence the brand wasn't dropped. 

You could name a route 'sausage' and it could be a success if it was done correctly. If the company really committed to marketing sausage. Branded the buses in an eye catching sausage livery, the sausage theme was continued inside the bus and all marketing was sausage themed. Yes, everyone would say it was ridiculous, but at the end of the day they would be taking about it, which translates into people getting on it. The purpose of a brand is to make money, not please people.

I don't think any branding necessary improves the passenger experience, or adds any sense of 'premium'. Branding should be there to build commercial awareness. Imagine someone was getting the bus for the first time from Newcastle to Chester-le-Street and they've been told there's an Arriva bus and an Angel bus. There's dozens of mysterious looking Arriva buses around Newcastle but the green bus with a massive image of the Angel on the side is clearly the one they need. If once on board, the new passenger is surrounded by reminders they are on the Angel they'll remember that's the bus to Newcastle. From then, they'll always use the Angel and never contemplate getting the X12. It's the same as ASDA using green and Tesco using blue for signs and uniforms in their stores - to implant the brand in the customer's mind.

The bus networks here are incredibly monipolised, generally. Branding isn't essential because there isn't the need for the edge over the competing parties as they simply don't exist. Look at Stanley depot for example. Everything is pretty simple, even those B9s are untouched inside. The only routes that challenges anything to do with Stanley are the 713 and the EDwhatever to Medomsley (just). Neither carry more than about 10 people (the ED only runs once, too), so businesswise there is no need to invest in the finer aspects of a bus. If you put GNE logos all over the Stanley Omnidekkas, is a single person going to start using service X71 over anything else? No - simply because there is nothing else. Same with the Toonlinks/RKs/Ventures.

If those buses (the brick-like solos) are to be completing contract work, then the chances of there being any competition is slim. Is there another bus administrated by a different company that operates similarly to the 333? Is there a different company that operates the same links from Airport and the surrounding area?

Given the buses size, you should be able to guess that competition is not a factor that is involved in the decision to allocate.

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The bus networks here are incredibly monipolised, generally. Branding isn't essential because there isn't the need for the edge over the competing parties as they simply don't exist. Look at Stanley depot for example. Everything is pretty simple, even those B9s are untouched inside. The only routes that challenges anything to do with Stanley are the 713 and the EDwhatever to Medomsley (just). Neither carry more than about 10 people (the ED only runs once, too), so businesswise there is no need to invest in the finer aspects of a bus. If you put GNE logos all over the Stanley Omnidekkas, is a single person going to start using service X71 over anything else? No - simply because there is nothing else. Same with the Toonlinks/RKs/Ventures.

If those buses (the brick-like solos) are to be completing contract work, then the chances of there being any competition is slim. Is there another bus administrated by a different company that operates similarly to the 333? Is there a different company that operates the same links from Airport and the surrounding area?

Given the buses size, you should be able to guess that competition is not a factor that is involved in the decision to allocate.

I wouldn't say that the ED1 provides any form of competition with GNE - 1 journey in each direction on schooldays with the purpose of transporting students to Houghall Campus. It doesn't go via Durham Bus Station/Millburngate either, it heads straight down Framwellgate Peth and across the bridge to New Elvet. Not ideal for anybody going into the city and passengers for New College usually let it past and wait for the 16 that runs minutes behind it.

Redgarding the 333 etc, Nexus state the capacity etc - the operator gets paid to operate the service regardless of how much competition is.

I wouldn't say that the ED1 provides any form of competition with GNE - 1 journey in each direction on schooldays with the purpose of transporting students to Houghall Campus. It doesn't go via Durham Bus Station/Millburngate either, it heads straight down Framwellgate Peth and across the bridge to New Elvet. Not ideal for anybody going into the city and passengers for New College usually let it past and wait for the 16 that runs minutes behind it.

Redgarding the 333 etc, Nexus state the capacity etc - the operator gets paid to operate the service regardless of how much competition is.

I agree that the ED1 isn't really competition, but it is in the loosest of terms as it's in the vague area of GNE in parts. It's the only other thing that comes close to competition though, along with 713.

I understand what you're saying, and it further shows how irrelevant the extra 'premium' features are to the bus.

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When GNE went big with their branding back in 2006, the branding was arguably a bit more wholehearted. The brand was continued internally, including themed coving panels and safety notices - which have since been dropped.

The best execution of a bus brand I think I've seen is Trent's 'Spondon Flyer'. Much more than just a livery, internally the seats are individually numbered and have a BOAC 'Speedbird' style logo embroided , mimicking a plane cabin. The coving adverts interwork flight/holiday themes throughout and the timetables describe 'Flight times'. Even the destination display en route states 'Come fly with me to......Spondon'. 

Catching a 'flyer' becomes an immersive experience for the passenger, the brand sticks in the mind and builds loyalty. It is useful of course that the brand has an appropriate meaning - it's a express bus to Spondon after all. 

There was a point were GNE seemed to be branding for the sake of branding. There's little point if it doesn't mean anything - I'm thinking 'Kingfisher', 'See it Do it' 'Showstopper'. I'd rather a strong corporate identity for peripheral routes and some strong, well executed, brands for core routes such as 'Angel', 'TTX' & 'Prince Bishops'.

Reading the original post, my mind went back to the internal branding and the faces of fellow passengers, who endured my 'singing' whenever I got the 71. I thought sticking the lyrics to the Lambton Worm on coving was a brilliant idea.
It could have been the start of something, although I would hope not too gimmicky.

Apart from then, I think Wear Buses were the only GNE op to have continued the theme inside. They used plastic corporate themed covering on their National's for a period. If I remember correctly, the insides of some vehicles were painted grey and green too.
There may be images online for those who can't remember or are unaware.

I do think that internal branding is often overlooked (and that's from someone who isn't a fan of branding in general).
When GAG introduced their blue diagonal stripe brand, I anticipated a refresh internally. How wrong I was.
Ditto vehicles prior to then in an advertising livery of some sort.

5409 has been loaned to Chester-Le-Street:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/98641142@N08/32594614122/

5409 has been loaned to Chester-Le-Street:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/98641142@N08/32594614122/

5366 was also loaned to Chester-le-Street this afternoon and used on 886 scholars. Replaced by Waggonway Scania L94 4957 for the 265 journey which follows.