100 British Bus Routes: Route 10
Hexham to Newcastle-upon-Tyne
9 July 2022
ABOVE: Go North East 6076 (NK62 FEU), a Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, representing the normal allocation on route 10.
All pictures in this article were taken on Thursday 5th May 2022.
All pictures in this article were taken on Thursday 5th May 2022.
Operator: Go North East
Runs: Daily, including full evening service
Weekday frequency: Every 30 minutes
Estimated Peak Vehicle Requirement: Six buses
(probably cross-linked with associated services 10A Newcastle to Blackhill Mill / 10B Newcastle to Prudhoe)
Off-peak journey time: 83 minutes
Estimated route length: 25 miles
Runs: Daily, including full evening service
Weekday frequency: Every 30 minutes
Estimated Peak Vehicle Requirement: Six buses
(probably cross-linked with associated services 10A Newcastle to Blackhill Mill / 10B Newcastle to Prudhoe)
Off-peak journey time: 83 minutes
Estimated route length: 25 miles
During the recent rail strikes, a man from Newcastle-upon-Tyne was interviewed on BBC "Breakfast". His train to Hexham had been cancelled and he said that he had no other way to get to work, other than for a colleague to take a detour to pick him up and take him there by car.
I would contend that he should have tried out bus route 10 from Go North East, which links the two with the kind of frequency and coverage that must make other rural areas turn green with envy.
OK, it takes longer by bus (some trains do it in 31 minutes; the bus takes more than 80), but better than taking a friend miles out of their way, surely?
As one might expect, there were lots of options when it came to choosing a “route 10” for my selection – Traveline lists over 80 services carrying that number.
Curiously, the one major city that does not have a route 10 at the moment is London; its route 10 was swallowed up a few years ago as part of the drive to reduce the number of buses in Oxford Street (that has certainly worked – on a recent visit to Oxford Street there were times when I couldn’t see a bus at all).
But my choice of route 10 has brought me to the other end of England.
There are at least four ways to travel between Hexham and Newcastle. Route 74, the low-frequency tour of every village within ten miles of the main road (or so it seems), has already featured in this series. Stagecoach / Arriva’s joint route 685 and Go-Ahead’s 684 are probably the most direct, but I reckon that Go-Ahead’s route 10 is the flagship service along this corridor.
Having found myself at the Metrocentre Bus Station in Gateshead with no clue as to where I’m heading, the 10 to Hexham has sounded like a decent idea. As is often the case, the only pre-planning I have done is while standing at the bus stop, and that planning has been limited to ensuring that there will be a bus back for me from the other end!
ABOVE: Metrocentre Bus Station at 4.45pm on a Thursday afternoon. I would expect it to be busier!
It’s the start of the evening peak so it’s a busy service. I manage to get a window seat upstairs, but some of those further back in the queue are not so lucky. In fact the bus is getting close to capacity by the time it passes through Blaydon. This vehicle is one with a display counting down the stops to the end of the journey, but pessimistically suggesting that it won’t get to Hexham until “0100”.
Fast forward a couple of hours, and I’m at Hexham Bus Station awaiting the 1840 departure back to Newcastle, in lovely spring evening sunshine.
ABOVE: Go North East 671 (NK16 BXN), an Optare Solo SR, arrives at Hexham Bus Station on a run from nearby Newbrough.
The bus is right on time. Unlike the incoming trip, this one starts out fairly quietly and I am able to secure an upstairs front seat. The very first stop is the General Hospital, but there’s no-one there for us tonight.
A few miles out is the town of Corbridge; served by a double-run which takes us twice across the main bridge over the Tyne. The town itself has some tight spots, especially at the local convenience store which only has a handful of parking spaces, but more demand than can be accommodated – the others stand in the road.
ABOVE: Heading into Corbridge across the Tyne
ABOVE: Back across the river, in the opposite direction to the previous picture.
We’re sharing the circuit with the bus heading in the opposite direction to Hexham. Some of the buses claim to run “up to every 10 mins into Newcastle, Metrocentre and Hexham”. It may be true for the first two places, which also have routes 10A and 10B, but the best frequency on the 10 itself is half-hourly. Mind you, that’s still very impressive for a semi-rural route.
ABOVE: 6081 (NK62 FKG) in Corbridge on a route 10 service to Hexham; taken from the top deck of my route 10 service which is heading the other way to Newcastle. (This is a double-run.)
It’s a small town and everything (except the railway station) is in easy reach. We’re in the heart of the countryside as well, and yet there are three hourly-or-better bus routes (10, 684 & 685) serving this town. Not bad! The Wikipedia entry for Corbridge also mentions a route 602, but I can’t find any evidence of that one.
ABOVE: Somewhere near Riding Mill, Northumberland
ABOVE: Also somewhere near Riding Mill
As we run into Stocksfield, I manage by chance to get a really decent picture of the railway station – albeit there’s absolutely nothing happening there! We’re never far from the railway on this route.
ABOVE: Stocksfield railway station
As we come into Front Street in Prudhoe, someone has clearly had a serious collision with a bus stop, which has been taped off by police.
It’s very hilly round here so there are some lovely views of the area are to be had.
ABOVE: Ryton Methodist Church is quite imposing too, although the prayers said there today are probably of a different kind as it is being used as a Polling Station for the Local Elections.
ABOVE: Ryton Methodist Church
We’re no longer in rural Northumberland. We have reached suburbia and the area is getting more built up. The railway line comes into view again, and road and railway run along the bank of the Tyne for a while. It’s still very scenic.
A small transport interchange welcomes us to Blaydon Shopping Centre. Blaydon, and its neighbour Winlaton, presumably live in the shadow of the Metrocentre nowadays. The local railway station is close by but not obvious from the interchange.
How the hearts of the local shopkeepers must have sunk when the construction of the Metrocentre was announced in the 1980s. It’s the second largest shopping centre in the country (after Westfield at Shepherds Bush in London). Three hundred shops and dozens of restaurants (so why did I choose Burger King?) spread over two million feet of retail space!
In the evenings, all buses serving the Metrocentre’s large bus station use stands E or K. These are the stops closest to the escalator leading to the shops and the railway station, so I assume this is some sort of approach to tackling anti-social behaviour, as other stands can presumably be roped off.
ABOVE: A view of the Metrocentre bus station from the neighbouring road. A route 10 / 10A / 10B service is picking it on its way out of town. (Could be a 10A – a service to Greenside is due about now.
This doesn’t technically affect route 10, which uses stands E (towards Hexham) & K (towards Newcastle) all day. However, there are several buses clamouring around stand K when we arrive so we end up at stand L!
One thing the Metrocentre does have is a fully-stocked leaflet rack with timetable leaflets for many buses serving the area. It seems like a very spacious bus interchange, both inside and out, but it’s now well into the evening so I’m probably not seeing it at its busiest. It’s nice to see a bus facility at one of these places that doesn’t look like it was added to the design as an after-thought (and I am looking at you, Brent Cross)!
Soon we’re crossing the river and coming into Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where the bus terminates at the Eldon Square Bus Station. We’ve picked up quite a crowd on the incoming journey. It’s nice to see so many wanting to get into Newcastle at near 8pm. Looks like a healthy service.
I love rides like this one – from a small town at one end, through beautiful countryside and into the heart of a major city at the other (see also Route 60, Keighley to Leeds). Try this ride if you’re in the area – it’s delightful.