Durham Fathers Day Rally confirmed date is 19th June

Metrocentre Bus & Coach Rally 2022 confirmed 15th May

A photo on Facebook has appeared today showing possible 6336/6337 at Saltmedows in a new livery unbranded 

Title is long I know but the 500 group of Teesside confirmed on there website the Transporter Bridge event in April will not happen this year or mostly like not there again. Down below is what they have said about the event

Sadly, it is not proved practical to organise a 2022 Teesside Running Day in its traditional April slot nor at its Transporter Bridge base. We are looking for an alternative venue, perhaps for a reduced, September event and we will provide updates here

Go North East Pride news today confirming a new Pride branded bus in time for Sunderland Pride 

Since then, Go North East has introduced more Pride-branded buses to its fleet, not only to visit Pride celebrations in the region with, but to show the company’s support for the LGBTQ+ community year-round; Go North East’s Pride branded buses can often be seen serving customers in many communities across the North East.

Go North East will once again support Pride events this year, with events taking place in Durham, Newcastle and Sunderland. To show its ongoing commitment Go North East plans to rebrand a bus using the Progress Flag to attend Sunderland Pride and serve communities in and around Sunderland too.

The Progress Flag is a development of the well-known Rainbow Flag – a symbol of the LGBTQ+ community – and incorporates light blue, pink and white to represent the trans, non-binary and intersex communities, and black and brown to show support for marginalised LGBTQ+ communities of colour.

GNE keep peddling this but is it actually true? I can't see how they can possibly be when they're constantly making cuts to their network every few weeks and downsizing time after time. 10 year ago maybe, even before Covid, but now I'd be surprised.

Surely Stagecoach or Arriva are bigger who have services in more areas.

Dan has confirmed on flickr here that most of the Northumberland County Council contracts (at least those with GNE) expire 3rd April. This was in direct relation to the 434/448 but likely also includes the Hexham locals. As far as other operators, there'll presumably be the Wooler services, X14 Morpeth to Thropton, 418, and 58 coming up for renewal, along with the many one day a week/one journey a day rural services.

In Dan's recent Flickr post https://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgrah...9993516198 he mentioned about 8339-8346 which he says the majority are excepted to move to Percy Main for the 19/41 services. 
So I wonder what will take over the 9&5 routes. Maybe solo's or vera's.

And if all streetlites aren't going to Percy Main, where will the ones which don't go to Percy Main be allocated.


Also as the 9&5 interwork with 60 on a evening, which can get busy so will these still interwork with the 60, if allocated a solo

Given that Arriva have an abundance of these at the moment, I thought I'd create a dedicated thread for discussion on them.

Jay Tee has uploaded a photo of 2851 to the busesnortheast Facebook group, showing its current state having been withdrawn from service. It's intended to be sold for scrap, having been cannibalised for spare parts.

Nexus has today invited operators to tender for Miscellaneous Workings (school and works) services.

An anticipated decision to award will be made by 12 May 2022, with contracts awarded on 25 May, with contracts commencing for a two-year period from 29 August 2022 until 30 August 2024.

As always, there are different capacity requirements:

• Mincap 44
  
• Mincap 60
  
• Mincap 84
  
• Mincap 90
  

For the first time, these contracts will not be awarded on 100% cost, and Nexus will incentivise operators to provide Euro 5 or greater vehicles, with a 10% quality mark/90% cost weighting. There will also be a contractual requirement to provide contactless-enabled ticket machines on all services.

A huge step in the right direction for these services - clearly contract awards are a long time away yet (three months) but it will be interesting to see how it unfolds this year. Without question this will result in improved quality, not only on these services, but also Metro Replacement services too, where some bus operators currently cannot offer contactless payment methods to customers which is a standard feature on Metro itself.