Go North East

[Metroline1511]

RE: Go North East
As well as enjoying the above bus rides, I enjoyed several observations. The modern moquette is like a spiced-up Go-Ahead London moquette, with Go super-imposed in several places. Last week, ex-London Citaro bendibuses 5344 and 5345 had not been refurbished, so you can see what I mean.

Also unrefurbished were some Tridents, Solars on route X35 and Volvo B10BLEs and Cadets on the dandy Highwayman routes. I did see a Solar parked in Gateshead bus station in Highwayman green but without logos, so no doubt destined for these routes. Maybe the Cadets will then be refurbished and replace SPDs on routes 17 and 19, and Caetanos. With even R-reg Renowns already refurbished, I wonder whether the X-reg ones face early withdrawal?

Oh yes, it was ironic seeing R-reg buses on route 27. I remember seeing and riding a new Olympian-NC II on its predecessor route 527 in October 1998. While some newer buses sometimes operate the route, it felt bizarre reflecting that some buses on the route are now older than those from 1998!

My Olympian ride was my first bus ride of the day on Friday 27th July. My ticket has route 95a on it, and as the route was withdrawn 2 days later, my ticket is already a collector's item! I had even seen another Olympian on route 53 at around 8.35pm on the Thursday, and a few out on the Saturday, so they seem to be limited all-day Monday-Saturday buses. I didn't notice any on Sunday and doubt they are ever needed on Sundays.

I would be surprised if route 10 goes double-deck as it didn't seem unduly busy.

I would have liked route 9 to be called Cross Tyne Link or East Tyne Link, as it connects Jarrow and North Shields via the Tyne Tunnel. Mind you, Wearsiders in Sunderland might not like it! Talking of branding, the only main routes I noticed not branded were route 17 and Durham-area routes 13, 14, 15 and 15a. Maybe Sweet Seventeen and North Durham Locals could be in the offing?

I note that some generic buses are Yellow Buses while others are red with Northern branding. I am not sure what the differentiation is. My guess was that spare buses used to be yellow but a new policy of a red livery was subsequently introduced.