Internal communications this morning confirming the complete sale of Arriva to I Squared.

"Today I’m pleased to share a significant and exciting announcement about the future of our company. Our shareholder, Deutsche Bahn (DB), has entered into an agreement with a company called I Squared Capital - a global infrastructure manager - to purchase the whole of the Arriva Group."

just seen 2710 on the  63 at redcar

Am just wondering what some of the shortest routes in the North East area must be to have existed.  The two I can think of are. 

Service 5  Headland - Hart Station which took less than 10 minutes and could easily do a round trip within 20 minutes.  

The TR1  Middlesbrough Bus Station - Middleheaven ( Middlesbrough College ). 
A journey time of around 5 minutes end to end.  

However both can easily by the former Hartlepool shopping shuttle 25 service which was simply Victoria road to to the Marina.  


I can’t think of any other registered services that have been shorter than these unless anyone else can.

Could be a fun few days / week / months ahead for the Morpeth expresses at Ashington as there's no trains serving Morpeth northbound and a limited service on the ECML with speed restrictions as a viaduct has completely collapsed today.

There's also a comment on RailUK that Stagecoach are running a replacement bus service, not sure where from or what with though mind.

Couple of images from RailUK (https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/iss...908/page-2) below of the state of it.

for those who don't know Arriva Durham's 1413 is only currently on loan to Stockton its not transfer  how i know that is of a Facebook group from drivers

Just read an article that Toner Road Primary School has gained an ALX300 from Stagecoach

Little bit of trivia but was something I was thinking about before, we've quite often talked about longest bus routes, but which route in the North East has the most stops on their route according to timetable data. I'll throw 3 in but there's probably more. Most the obvious long routes aren't anywhere near the top of this as they all pretty much have limited stop sections.

1 (GNE) - 107 Stops
78 (GNE) - 105 Stops
6 (GNE) - 101 Stops
57A (Arriva) Sundays - 95 Stops
50 (GNE) - 91 Stops
18A (GNE) - 89 Stops

Edited to add others.

Anyone beat them?

Majority of Streetlites have had the new Logos and Reintroduced Blue Front added onto them during Week 1 of the Strikes.
Looks fairly alright, Just wondering how the other buses will look when the Logo gets added to existing brands and of course other current fleet livery vehicles

*Not My Photo*

Ashington Solo 2601 appears to be in Bus & Coach World for repaint and/or refurbishment. 

https://flic.kr/p/2p7io6Y. 

Assume it went down when 7549 returned.

Has arriva introduced a decker board on the 1 as it would appear the duty that starts with the 06.32 1 to Wansbeck Hospital and finishes with the last 2 from Blyth appears to have had deckers all week. Had 7541 on Monday, 7531 on Tuesday, 7527 yesterday & 7529 today