Go North East

Go North East was originally the founding company of the Go-Ahead Group. Today, it operates bus services in Tyne and Wear, County Durham and Northumberland in England. Go North East operates through three trading names; Go North East Ltd. (previously Go Gateshead Ltd.), Go Northern Ltd. and Go Wear Buses Ltd. However, the only signs of these now are the legals on the bottom of the bus. The company was previously known as The Northern General Transport Company and Go-Ahead Northern. The company operates a modern fleet of around 700 buses, 95% that are in regular service are low floor. The first serious trial of low floor buses in the UK outside of London was operated from the Percy Main Depot in North Tyneside. This was with the Wright Pathfinder trial.

Go North East's headquarters are at 117 Queen Street, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear and their central engineering department is at Site 11, Saltmeadows Road, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.

Go North East Ltd.
Operates services in and around Gateshead and into Newcastle. Go North East also operates the X10 Express service between Newcastle and Middlesbrough and the highly acclaimed X66 CentreLink bendy bus service between Gateshead Interchange and the MetroCentre transport interchange. As part of the Centrelink project part of the X66's route is now a bus only road that runs alongside the River Tyne. To link in with the X66 contract, Go North East registered a new route, X67 in 2007. This formed a new network with the X66 and X67 being publicised as 'Park and Ride' services during peak times. This subsidiary also operates services on North Tyneside out of the former Go Coastline Ltd. depot at Percy Main. Services that run into Gateshead from South Tyneside that were formerly operated from the now defunct Go Coastline Ltd. South Shields depot are now undertaken by the Sunderland Road depot.

Depots are located at:


 * Sunderland Road, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear - 'Sunderland Road'
 * Rothbury Terrace, Percy Main, Tyne and Wear - 'Percy Main' (formerly Go Coastline)
 * Cromwell Place, Winlaton, Tyne and Wear - 'Winlaton'

Go Northern Ltd.
Operates mainly in County Durham. Operates some services into Tyne and Wear and Teesside.

Depots are located at:


 * Picktree Lane, Chester-le-Street, County Durham - 'Chester-le-Street'
 * High Street, Stanley, County Durham - 'Stanley'

In March 2006, Go North East announced it was withdrawing from Bishop Auckland with the exception of 3 flagship routes, mainly those linking to Durham and Newcastle, which were transferred to the Chester-le-Street depot (the former 723,724 and X72 services now under the Service 21 banner) The bulk of operations were transferred to Arriva Bishop Auckland.

On the 1st October 2006, Go North East introduced the first bus service in the North East scheduled to run 24 hours a day, the 21/N21 (now re-branded 'The Angel') between Newcastle and Chester-le-Street. From 4th August 2007 the N21 was extended from Chester-le-Street to Durham via Plawsworth and Framwellgate Moor where a connection will be provided by the new night bus service N20 to Gilesgate Moor, Belmont and Carville.

Go Wear Buses Ltd.
Runs services local thorough Sunderland. Also operates some of the former Go Coastline services on South Tyneside. Wear Buses also operates services into County Durham, Northumberland and the rest of Tyne and Wear. From June 2, 2007, Go Wear Buses will operate a weekend night bus service on route Fab56 (numbered N56) and from August 4 2007 a weekend night service will also operate on the Prinice Bishops service (numbered N20), however this service will operate only in Durham City Centre from North Road to Gilesgate Moor, Belmont and Carville.

Deptford are operating services on contract to Durham County Council that were formally operated by Jayline Travel. The routes are operated by some former Jayline Optare Solos witch retain Jayline livery but with 'Go North East Jayline' fleetnames applied as well as native Go North East vehicles. It is expected all buses used on the route will gain 'Go North East Jayline' livery.

Depots are located at:


 * Deptford Terrace, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear - 'Deptford'
 * Industrial Road, Hertburn Industrial Estate, Washington, Tyne and Wear - 'Washington'

Northumbria Buses Ltd.
Northumbria Coaches were recently acquired in 2007. Their depot is based in Ashington. They were renamed to be 'Northumbria Buses' after acquisition and had a new logo applied. This new logo does not include the traditional castle logo in the centre. Northumbria operates mainly in Northumberland and northern Newcastle, with services operating into the City Centre.

Depots are located at:


 * Jubilee Industrial Estate, Ashington, Northumberland - 'Ashington'

Bus companies acquired by Go North East

 * The Venture Transport Company
 * Stanley Taxis (Local bus services only)
 * The Langley Park Motor Company
 * Tyne & Wear Omnibus Company Limited (Immediately sold to Busways)
 * Carryden Limited (Local bus services only)
 * Low Fell Coaches
 * Atkinsons
 * Shaws Coaches
 * Star Travel (Local bus services only)
 * JH Hammell (Diamond)
 * OK Motor Services
 * Derwent Coaches (Local bus services only)
 * Armstrongs of Ebchester
 * Redby Bus & Coach Ltd. (Local bus services only)

Former depots

 * Strothers Road, High Spen, Tyne & Wear - 'High Spen'
 * Jarrow Bus Staion, Jarrow, Tyne & Wear - 'Jarrow' (Merged with South Shields)
 * Park Lane, Sunderland, Tyne & Wear - 'Park Lane' (Replaced by Deptford)
 * Lady's Walk, South Shields, Tyne & Wear - 'South Shields' (Merged with Deptford)
 * Bondgate, Bishop Auckland, County Durham - 'Bishop Auckland' (Sold to Arriva, flagsip services transfered to Chester-le-Street)
 * Philidelphia, Tyne and Wear - 'Philidelphia'

Night buses
Go North East operate a number of night bus services (with an 'N' prefix) throughout the region. The N21 was its first initial trial with plans to roll the service out to more areas if it proved successful. The N56 was introduced on 2 June 2007.

Below is a list of all night services and the areas they serve:


 * N20 Durham, Gilesgate Moor, Belmont and Carrville
 * N21 Newcastle, Gateshead, Birtley, Chester-le-Street, Plawsworth and Durham.
 * N56 Sunderland, Southwick Green, Hylton Castle, Washington Galleries, Concord, Springwell, Wrekenton, Gateshead and Newcastle
 * N58 Heworth, Leam Lane Estate, Felling Square, Deckham, Gateshead, Newcastle, Coast Road, High Farm, Battle Hill Drive and Hadrian Park
 * N97 Newcastle, Gateshead, Bensham, Lobley Hill, Dunston Hill, Whickham, Fellside Park and Dunston.

MetroCentre Flyer
Go North East trialled a new network of services across the region to provide direct, express connections to Gateshead's MetroCentre shopping centre. The initial services were:


 * X22 Chester-le-Street - Birtley - MetroCentre
 * X40 Newbiggin - Ashington - Stakeford - Bedlington - MetroCentre
 * X57 South Shields - Chichester - Whiteleas Way - Biddick Hall - South Leam Estate - Calf Close - Fellgate Estate - MetroCentre
 * X68 Tynemouth - North Shields - Wallsend - Byker - Newcastle Quayside - MetroCentre

The X22 and X57 used yellow Volvo Olympian/Northern Counties Palatine 1's, while X68 used the Spare Route 19 Scania L94UB/Wright Solar and X40 was operated by Northumbria Buses.

Services X57 and X68 were withdrawn in early 2008. Service X22 will extend to Durham in March 2008.

Route branding
During 2006, Go North East began applying bright eye catching liveries to its vehicles. This is apparently an attempt to increase passenger numbers by increasing awareness of its services. All buses still carry Go North East fleetnames in addition to these new 'brandings' as well as either Go North East, Go Northern or Go Wear Buses legal lettering. The list below shows the services that have been branded so far.

Services highlighted in red do not use accessible vehicles.

During restructuring of the service network Go North East has withdrawn a number of their branded services, these are listed below.

Each branded service has its own logo and livery. The gallery below shows most of these logos and colour schemes.

Standard vehicle types
Below is a list of vehicles Go North East bought 'as standard'. Anybody interested in a complete fleet list can visit the Fleet Info section of the Go North East Website.

Current

 * Low floor double deck
 * Volvo B7TL/Wright Eclipse Gemini


 * Low floor single deck
 * Scania OmniCity
 * Mercedes-Benz Citaro (for 'high quality' express services)


 * Low floor midibus
 * VDL SB120/Wright Cadet (Standard Midi)
 * Dennis Dart MPD (Small Midi)

Past

 * Low floor double deck
 * Dennis Trident 2/East Lancs Lolyne
 * Dennis Trident 2/Plaxton President


 * Low floor single deck
 * Scania L94UB/Wright Solar
 * Dennis Dart SPD/Plaxton
 * Volvo B10BLE/Wright Renown
 * DAF SB220GS/Plaxton Prestige
 * Optare Excel
 * Dennis Lance SLF/Wright Pathfinder


 * Low floor minibus
 * Optare Solo


 * Double deck
 * Volvo Olympian/Northern Counties Palatine II
 * Leyland Olympian/Alexander RH
 * MCW Metrobus


 * Midibus
 * Dennis Dart/Marshall C37
 * Dennis Dart/Wright Handybus
 * Dennis Dart/Carlyle Dartline


 * Minibus
 * Optare Metrorider