Go North East

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Go North East, part of the Go-Ahead Group, operates bus services in Tyne and Wear and County Durham in England. It also operates a small number of services in Northumberland and Tees Valley. Go North East operates through its three subsidiaries; Go Gateshead Ltd., Go Northern Ltd. and Go Wear Buses Ltd. However buses generally wear Go North East fleetnames. The company was previously known as The Northern General Transport Company and Go-Ahead Northern. The company operates a modern fleet or around 700 buses, 75% 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.

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

1 Subsidiaries
2 Route Branding
3 Standard vehicle types
- 3.1 Current
- 3.2 Past
4 External links

[edit] Subsidiaries

[edit] Go Gateshead Ltd.

Operates services in and around Gateshead and into Newcastle. Go Gateshead 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. 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
Rothbury Terrace, Percy Main, Tyne and Wear (formerly Go Coastline)
Cromwell Place, Winlaton, Tyne and Wear

[edit] 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
High Street, Stanley, County Durham

Go Ahead recently started construction of a massive bus depot on the Drum Lane Industrial Estate between Chester-le-Street and Birtley, this will when it is completed replace the Stanley and Chester-le-Street depots

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 bulk of operations will be transferred to Arriva Durham.

On the 1st October 2006, Go North East introduced the only bus service in the North East scheduled to run 24 hours a day, the 21/N21 between Newcastle and Chester-le-Street.

[edit] 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.

Depots are located at:

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

[edit] 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 Gateshead, Go Northern or Go Wear Buses leagal lettering. The list below shows the services that have been branded so far:

Go Gateshead Ltd.
- 10/11/X11/31/32 - The Blaydon Racers
- 53/54 - Saltwell Park
- 93/94 - The Loop
- 95/96/97 - The Highwayman
- 305/315/316/325/326 - The Centurion
- R19 - Route 19
- X42/X43 - Bargain Bus
- X66 - CentreLink
Go Northern Ltd.
- 21/N21 - Twenty One, 24 hour service
- 40/43/43A/44 - Stanley Shuttle
- D4 - Pink Panthers
Go Wear Buses Ltd.
- 20 - Prince Bishops
- 26/36 - The Black Cats
- 29/39 - The Doxford Clipper
- 30 - Thirty
- 33/42 - The Magic Roundabout
- 56 - The FAB56
- M1/M2/M3 - MetroLink
- X2 - The Red Arrows