The bus company, Go North East has announced further bus cuts across the region just weeks after a raft of changes were made.
Go North East, which operates dozens of services in County Durham, Tyne & Wear and Teesside, has confirmed a number of permanent and temporary changes.
Starting from Saturday, September 3, the company will further reduce its services, impacting commuters and travellers across the region.
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It comes just several weeks after a raft of cancellations hit County Durham and Tyne & Wear, prompting fury among passengers.
In a statement announcing the changes, Go North East said: "We will be making permanent changes to some of our services from September 3.
"From the same date, we will also be introducing some temporary changes to services which should enable us to provide a more reliable service, and remove the need for daily cancellations.
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"We’d like to thank you for your patience in recent months and apologise for the inconvenience caused."
As a result, a full list of service cancellations and changes has been listed.
X-lines X10
There will be no change to the timetable, but the service will be revised so that it uses Stand E at Eldon Square.
X-lines X20
This service will be revised temporarily to only run between Sunderland and Doxford International at peak times.
At other times of day, the ‘all stops’ Prince Bishops 20 will be revised to provide alternatives:
A new 20A service will be introduced, running via Winters Bank and Rainton Bridge.
Service 20 will be extended from Durham to Langley Park via Arnison Centre.
X-lines X21
There will be some minor changes to the timetable.
Coaster 1
There will be some changes to the timetable to improve reliability.
Service 6
There will be some minor changes to the timetable to improve reliability.
Country Ranger 8
The service will be temporarily revised to run up to every hour.
Tyne Valley 10, 10A & 10B
Tyne Valley 10 will remain half-hourly between Newcastle and Hexham.
Tyne Valley 10A will be temporarily revised to run hourly between Newcastle and Blackhall Mill. Short trips to Rockwood Hill will not run.
Service 10B will be temporarily revised to run hourly.
Combined, the 10/10A/10B services will continue to offer a high frequency, with a bus operating up to every 15 minutes between Crawcrook and Newcastle.
There will be no change to Sundays, with the exception of the 6.29am journey from Prudhoe which will be retimed to 6.39am to improve connections with other services.
Service 12
The service will be temporarily revised to run up to every 30 minutes.
Following feedback, there will be a revised route between Blaydon Bus Station and Winlaton Bus Station, with buses serving Parkhead Estate, Hanover Estate, and Heddon View in both directions.
Prince Bishops 20
X-lines X20 will be temporarily suspended, so journeys on Prince Bishops 20 will extend to Langley Park from Durham.
A new 20A service will also be introduced to run via Winters Bank and Rainton Bridge, replacing service X20.
Buses will run twice per hour as service 20, and twice per hour as service 20A. This means that as a result of these temporary changes, there will be a reduction in the amount of journeys serving Hall Lane Estate.
Angel 21
There will be some changes to the timetable to improve reliability.
Sunderland District Graphite 39
The service will be temporarily revised on weekdays to run up to every 30 minutes – once per hour as service 39A, once per hour as service 39B.
Service 49
The timetable on this service will be revised to improve reliability.
East Gateshead Orbit 51 & 52
These services will be temporarily revised to only operate as far as Gateshead, and will no longer serve Newcastle.
Customers for Newcastle can connect at Gateshead onto any other bus crossing the Tyne, with through tickets available to be purchased.
VOLTRA 53 & 54
These services will be temporarily revised to run up to every 15 minutes.
The road closure on Hawks Road, Gateshead, near Gateshead College, and the diversionary route our buses are needing to take as a result, is having a significant impact on the reliability of these services. As such, the route will be temporarily revised to no longer serve Gateshead College or Baltic, running to the Swing Bridge direct via The Sage and Bottle Bank. Customers for Baltic can alight at Sage.
Service 57
The service will be temporarily revised to run up to every 30 minutes.
Double-deck buses will be introduced to ensure there is enough seats on the reduced timetable.
Drifter 60
The service will be temporarily revised to run up to every 15 minutes.
East Durham Explorer 65
The service will be temporarily revised to run up to every hour, but there will still be extra buses at peak times to ensure there is enough capacity at busier times.
Services 67 & 69
The contract for services 67 and 69 has been awarded to Gateshead Central Taxis by Nexus.
As such, Saturday 3 September will be the last day these services are operated by Go North East.
Timetables/routes will continue unchanged. Valid GNE tickets/passes will be honoured for first 4 weeks (until 1 October 2022).
Service 96
There will be minor changes to the timetable of this service.
Green Arrow 97
The service will be temporarily revised to run up to every 20 minutes.
Cobalt & Coast 309, 310, 311 & X39
The timetable will be revised to improve reliability.
Service 434
The contract for service 434 has been awarded to another bus company by Northumberland County Council.
Saturday 3 September will be the last day this service is operated by us, and it’ll be operated by another company after this date.
Tynedale Links 687
The 8.09am journey from Newbrough will operate the opposite way around Whetstone Bridge Road so that the bus is on the correct side of the road for schools.
Quaycity QA & QB
In July, the firm introduced some changes to this service which meant that buses operated a clockwise and anti-clockwise loop around Great Park.
To denote this difference, it re-numbered service Q3 to be QA (anti-clockwise) and QB (clockwise).
It has received feedback that the change to the route number has caused confusion for customers.
As such, all buses will be revised to run as service Q3 again – but they will continue to run twice per hour clockwise around Great Park, and twice per hour anti-clockwise.
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