Services up for tender in July are

9/25/25A/10/11/12/24/26/29/90/92/R3/R4/R6/50/51/52AM/51/52PM/96/99/319/515/558/568/643/939/R5/67/69

Some of the odd ones here as to the website the following are

51/52 seem to be two different tenders for an AM & PM

The 939 is mentioned twice

Im not entirely sure which 12 they are on about. I thought it was the 12 in South Shields but thats in may as its grouped with the 13

The 67/69 dont share a contract but im not sure its always been the case or not

No 644 so im assuming thats commercially ran by GNE

Also im not sure which part of the 9 is nexus as it interworks with the 8

(16 Mar 2026, 10:08 pm)Nerd4321 wrote Services up for tender in July are

9/25/25A/10/11/12/24/26/29/90/92/R3/R4/R6/50/51/52AM/51/52PM/96/99/319/515/558/568/643/939/R5/67/69

Some of the odd ones here as to the website the following are

51/52 seem to be two different tenders for an AM & PM

The 939 is mentioned twice

Im not entirely sure which 12 they are on about. I thought it was the 12 in Winlaton 12 but thats in may as its grouped with the 13

The 67/69 dont share a contract but im not sure its always been the case or not

No 644 so im assuming thats commercially ran by GNE

Also im not sure which part of the 9 is nexus as it interworks with the 8

939 has 2 separate tenders, there are indeed 2 separate tenders for the 51/52 (the morning ones have been tendered for much longer) The 12 is the South Shields 12, the 644 is commercial you are correct, and the 9 is tendered on an evening iirc.

With the 700/701 now needing to be transferred to GNE after City Transport dropped the contract. And having sneakily dropped the frequency to 20 mins sometime in 2026.

While they're at it why couldn't they just combine the 700/701 from being a combined PVR = 3, to a simple 700 PVR = 3. 

Simple loop of Park Lane - City Campus - Royal Hospital - City Campus - Wheatsheaf - Seaburn - St Peters - Park Lane. 

This would:

• get rid of the horrific 45 mins freq on the 700 currently, and keep the current 701
  
• make the service usable with decent layover spread across the route.
  
• introduce links lost from the 18 to Royal Hospital making it actually a connections service
  
• and provide the same PVR with easier to understand service. 
  
• With it being about an hour for the same bus to restart it's loop from Park Lane means easy for evenings/Saturdays when no uni for frequency to be dropped to 30/60mins when required without need to or route.
  

I know this would mean slightly longer journey times to each main destination i.e going around hospital before Seaburn and Seaburn before st peters but with an enhanced freq and better punctuality people won't mind. Also this service shouldn't compete with the commercial services anyways. Just simply the Sunderland Connect to get you to university, town, seaburn or the hospital.

I wonder what happens to the 700/701 in the long term if Sunderland University decide to close St Peters Campus?

Is the main aim for students getting them between the two different sites (as well as some of the halls of residence) or is more of a general public service? Will the university continue financially supporting the service?

I agree with the comments above about links from Roker and Seaburn to the hospital (and to some extent, the new eye hospital). The infrastructure is already in place so if the university does close/move then keeping the links over the North Side of the river for whatever gets developed on the site would be a good idea? Let's not forget the stops that got installed near the National Glass Centre too for the short lived 702 (although when I was at GNE, I never picked anyone up there).

(21 Apr 2026, 3:09 pm)logidoodah wrote With the 700/701 now needing to be transferred to GNE after City Transport dropped the contract. And having sneakily dropped the frequency to 20 mins sometime in 2026.

While they're at it why couldn't they just combine the 700/701 from being a combined PVR = 3, to a simple 700 PVR = 3. 

Simple loop of Park Lane - City Campus - Royal Hospital - City Campus - Wheatsheaf - Seaburn - St Peters - Park Lane. 

This would:

• get rid of the horrific 45 mins freq on the 700 currently, and keep the current 701
  
• make the service usable with decent layover spread across the route.
  
• introduce links lost from the 18 to Royal Hospital making it actually a connections service
  
• and provide the same PVR with easier to understand service. 
  
• With it being about an hour for the same bus to restart it's loop from Park Lane means easy for evenings/Saturdays when no uni for frequency to be dropped to 30/60mins when required without need to or route.
  

I know this would mean slightly longer journey times to each main destination i.e going around hospital before Seaburn and Seaburn before st peters but with an enhanced freq and better punctuality people won't mind. Also this service shouldn't compete with the commercial services anyways. Just simply the Sunderland Connect to get you to university, town, seaburn or the hospital.

imo the 700 should be just withdrawn, with some form of 18 restored again but as a full loop, not the mess of a horse shoe it ended up with. The point of the 701 is to link the two campus' though, you can't send people on a detour via Seaburn first. 

Like I'd say something like, ideally every 30 minutes:


With the 99 being withdrawn with it.

It's be a bit of a risk of tax payers money, but the links on that network is currently utterly dire without doubling back via Sunderland which no-one sane is doing. Seaburn has had a massive resurgence in recent years, there's a hospital on the route, there's tonnes of destinations etc (green dots) and the 18 is badly needed anyway. Be nice to try and create something which might actually work rather than the same old crap over and over again.

The 558 then curtailed at Seaburn, with the 568 extending to Monkton Business Park, all day (they interwork).

(21 Apr 2026, 3:09 pm)logidoodah wrote With the 700/701 now needing to be transferred to GNE after City Transport dropped the contract. And having sneakily dropped the frequency to 20 mins sometime in 2026.

While they're at it why couldn't they just combine the 700/701 from being a combined PVR = 3, to a simple 700 PVR = 3. 

Simple loop of Park Lane - City Campus - Royal Hospital - City Campus - Wheatsheaf - Seaburn - St Peters - Park Lane. 

This would:

• get rid of the horrific 45 mins freq on the 700 currently, and keep the current 701
  
• make the service usable with decent layover spread across the route.
  
• introduce links lost from the 18 to Royal Hospital making it actually a connections service
  
• and provide the same PVR with easier to understand service. 
  
• With it being about an hour for the same bus to restart it's loop from Park Lane means easy for evenings/Saturdays when no uni for frequency to be dropped to 30/60mins when required without need to or route.
  

I know this would mean slightly longer journey times to each main destination i.e going around hospital before Seaburn and Seaburn before st peters but with an enhanced freq and better punctuality people won't mind. Also this service shouldn't compete with the commercial services anyways. Just simply the Sunderland Connect to get you to university, town, seaburn or the hospital.
The current arrangement is fine it satisfies both the residents in seaburn and students.

The problem is the majority of students wish to take the current 701. They want a short journey from the likes of clanny/city hall/city campus straight to st peters as opposed to having to ride around seaburn.
The 20 min frequency has been a life saver as 30 min round trips are completely impossible due to traffic/volume of passengers.

(21 Apr 2026, 3:40 pm)morritt89 wrote I wonder what happens to the 700/701  in the long term if Sunderland University decide to close St Peters Campus?

Is the main aim for students getting them between the two different sites (as well as some of the halls of residence) or is more of a general public service? Will the university continue financially supporting the service?

I agree with the comments above about links from Roker and Seaburn to the hospital (and to some extent, the new eye hospital). The infrastructure is already in place so if the university does close/move then keeping the links over the North Side of the river for whatever gets developed on the site would be a good idea? Let's not forget the stops that got installed near the National Glass Centre too for the short lived 702 (although when I was at GNE, I never picked anyone up there).

They’ve only relatively recently completed it, haven’t they? The first building was only opened about 30 years ago, so it would seem odd if they abandoned it in favour of their older, probably RAAC and asbestos filled buildings.