A DAY OUT WITH THE X
15 October 2022
ABOVE: Arriva North East 1515 (NL63 VRK), a VDL SB200 Wright Pulsar 2, arrives in Barnard Castle on route X76 from Darlington. It will return to Darlington on associate route X75. Despite what it says on the Methodist Church clock, it’s actually 12.50pm! Not visible from this angle is that the bus carries branding for route 7 (Darlington to Durham). All pictures in this article were taken on Friday 6th May 2022.
I’m in Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Eldon Square bus station, embarking on another day’s travels. It just so happens that every bus I am intending to use today has an X-prefix route number. I’ve not planned this – it’s just a coincidence!
Bus routes that include an X in their service number are usually trying to signify that they are ‘special’ in some way. Express services are the most common use of an X, of course. Such services might be limited stop throughout (eg, London’s X140), or have an express section (eg, the X43 Witchway from Burnley to Manchester).
Sometimes the reason for the “X” isn’t obvious – for example, Connexions route X52 (Harrogate to Otley) seems to be a ‘normal’ stopping service throughout, so perhaps the X is there for historical reasons – or just to be different.
I’m securing a good-value bus / Tyne & Wear Metro ticket that I’ve seen advertised on the Go North East website. And the Explorer ticket covers a very wide area, way beyond where I’m going today. It is rather cheekily advertised, though, as costing “from £5.70 a day”, when this is the Child fare; the Adult fare is £10.90:
I’m in Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Eldon Square bus station, embarking on another day’s travels. It just so happens that every bus I am intending to use today has an X-prefix route number. I’ve not planned this – it’s just a coincidence!
Bus routes that include an X in their service number are usually trying to signify that they are ‘special’ in some way. Express services are the most common use of an X, of course. Such services might be limited stop throughout (eg, London’s X140), or have an express section (eg, the X43 Witchway from Burnley to Manchester).
Sometimes the reason for the “X” isn’t obvious – for example, Connexions route X52 (Harrogate to Otley) seems to be a ‘normal’ stopping service throughout, so perhaps the X is there for historical reasons – or just to be different.
I’m securing a good-value bus / Tyne & Wear Metro ticket that I’ve seen advertised on the Go North East website. And the Explorer ticket covers a very wide area, way beyond where I’m going today. It is rather cheekily advertised, though, as costing “from £5.70 a day”, when this is the Child fare; the Adult fare is £10.90:
Although it’s available on the bus, given that I often struggle to buy the Day ticket I want from a bus driver, because they’ve never heard of it / have misheard me / can’t find it on their machine, etc, I decide to pop to the nearby Metro station, using a machine there to ensure that I pick up the right ticket. It’s interesting to see that, the further I get from Tyne & Wear, the less familiar drivers are with the ticket!
I’m starting out on the Go North East service X21 to Bishop Auckland. The bus, a 67-reg Volvo B5TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 3, is parked almost opposite the boarding point, but has to go round the block – out of the bus station and back in again – to get a decent run-up onto the stand. It looks smart and inviting, and there are seats around tables on the top deck.
Four tables on the top deck. The one nearest the camera has what looks like a ‘Snakes & Ladders’ game embedded – just the thing to pass the time when the traffic is heavy. Presumably you bring your own dice and counters.
This 0830 departure starts very quietly, but livens up at Gateshead Interchange. A man boards with his son. “Let’s stay down stairs,” he says; “we’re only going one stop”. “Yeah, Dad,” says the son, “but it’s, like, 10 minutes to get to it”! Dad relents and they come upstairs.
The first part of the X21 is indeed a straight-forward limited-stop sprint (there’s an equivalent 21 stopping service). The X21 stops only once between Gateshead and Chester-le-Street, a distance of about seven miles. That one stop is at Low Fell, a suburb of Gateshead and is scheduled to take, like, eight minutes. Dad and son leave there.
The weather takes a turn for the worse during the 19-minute drive on to Chester-le-Street. From here, the service stops a lot more en route to Durham, after which it’s a very much quieter run via the town of Spennymoor.
High Street, Spennymoor, where an Arriva Wright StreetLite DF is heading for nearby Ferryhill
Scarlet Band ADL Enviro 200 MX10KNV passes through Whitworth Terrace, Spennymoor, on route 99 from Shildon. Behind is Arriva North East 1517 (NL63 VRN), a VDL SB200 Wright Pulsar 2, on route 6 from Cockfield to Durham.
On arrival at Bishop Auckland, the whole run has taken an hour-and-three-quarters, but at least it has stopped raining now. The X21 still isn't done - it runs on a few more minutes to West Auckland.
Bishop Auckland Bus Station is bleak and uninviting. There’s no central information point that I can see, and I have to resort to consulting Traveline on my mobile to confirm which stop I need for the next bus, Arriva’s X1 to Darlington. It’s a tight connection (eight minutes, including comfort break) to be having to scramble for such basic information.
Bishop Auckland Bus Station, with an Arriva North East Wright StreetLite DF on a route X1 journey towards Crook
The X1 is a Sapphire-branded Wright StreetLite DF. The driver doesn’t seem to recognise my ticket but does not challenge me.
It’s an unremarkable journey, with the load varying between 12 and 15 passengers, and I’m soon stepping off the bus into Crown Street, in the centre of town. I’ve not seen anything to suggest the reason for an “X” prefix – perhaps it's just because it’s “direct”, running almost a straight line from end-to-end?
Arriva North East 1604 (NK67 EDL), a Wright StreetLite DF, has just dropped me in Darlington after a run on route X1 from Tow Law, north-west of Bishop Auckland and Darlington
It’s much easier to find the well-needed coffee shop in Darlington than it is to find my next bus. Once again, there is no centralised information that I can find to tell me where buses leave from – neither a diagram of bus stops or a list of routes departing. I know that I need Stand M, and I’ve found stands F & G on Prebend Row, so, if I follow the road round, I should come to stand M, n’est pas?
Non! Stands H, I, J, K & L all follow, but that’s where it ends. There’s no stand M on this road. For the second time today, I am consulting my phone – the mapping function this time – to find out where to catch my bus from! How do people without smartphones cope?
My phone confirms that, from stand L, I need to cross the road, double-back the way I have come past stand K, turn left and walk 200 yards past the Town Hall. Just before stand M is stand T. How does that work?
Having finally found my stop, with five minutes to spare, I’m awaiting the X75 to Barnard Castle.
And waiting. There are a number of people around, but no sign of the X75. It eventually trundles into view some 12 minutes late. It’s another Arriva Wright StreetLite and leaves with 15 passengers on board. The driver seems unsure about my ticket…
Publicity in this area isn’t great. A number of timetable displays just say that timetables “may not be up to date”. It doesn’t look like a lot of effort has been applied in posting this information either…
Barnard Castle gained some notoriety a couple of years ago, of course, but I suspect many of us don’t know much about the place – I certainly don’t. The town is actually named after and built around a medieval castle ruin, but it’s a nice, quintessentially English market town, about 15 miles west of Darlington.
For a small town, the bus facilities are pretty good, with a number of local services running to nearby villages. One of the main streets, Galgate, has side lanes, on both sides, separated from the main road by parking and street ‘furniture’. These side lanes make for decent bus stopping facilities, although you need to know which side of the road to be on. Barnard Castle Methodist Church makes a lovely focal point right at the end of Galgate. I don’t find an Optician’s shop but there might be one somewhere round about…
Hodgson’s Optare Solo SR YJ13 HKW awaits the next trip from Barnard Castle, Galgate on route 83 to Cockfield
My X75, having made up some of the lost time on the journey, doesn’t hang around, dropping off the last eight passengers and heading off again as the companion X76 service back to Darlington.
I can’t see why either route merits an “X” prefix. There are no Express sections, although there are some long stretches with no stops, but that's simply because we’re out in the middle of the country.
I’m heading back soon afterwards on another X75. This one is a VDL Wright Pulsar, with a driver and a ‘mentor’ on board. The mentor is sitting in the rear section of the bus, but somehow knows that I have shown an Explorer ticket (maybe because of the colours?); he directs the young driver, from his seat, on what buttons to push on the ticket machine.
This is a quieter run, with no more than five passengers on board at any point. The mentor reminds the driver to take the short, required detour into the village of Stainton. The driver does so, but there’s no point really as no-one boards or alights.
Back in Darlington and I’m heading next on the X67. At the time of my visit, this and companion service X66 provide four buses an hour across to Middlesbrough.
Arriva North East 1516 (NL63 VRM), a VDL SB200 Wright Pulsar 2, is about to take me from Darlington, Tubwell Row, to Middlesbrough on the since-withdrawn route X67.
The driver of this Volvo single-decker looks really unsure about my ticket, but eventually nods me through. I may be hearing him mumbling something about train tickets, but I may have misheard.
Unlike the last three “X” buses, this one does merit the “X” by turning onto the A66 dual-carriageway and running non-stop for about six miles. Is the A66 the reason why some buses on this route are numbered X66? We’re heading towards Stockton-on-Tees, but the direction the bus takes, around the town, makes me wonder if we’re bypassing the town centre entirely. We do eventually pull into the town centre, though.
Crossing the River Tees via the Victoria Bridge in Stockton-on-Tees. The bridge in the distance is the Teesquay Millennium Footbridge, opened in 2000. It reportedly can wobble “in either strong wind or when people run across” – reminds me of another bridge that opened in London around the same time.
This is a very quiet journey overall – no more than eight passengers on board at any point. Since my trip, the service has been reduced to three buses per hour. They all now run as the X66, although Arriva’s website still refers to both services.
The number of passengers on my X67 would seem to be a contributing factor to that reduction, although I do note that the bus pulls out of Middlesbrough station, on its return journey, with more than 30 passengers on board.
Middlesbrough bus station is large and busy. There are 21 bus stands grouped around all sides of the U-shaped facility. It takes me a moment to realise that there are orientation maps displayed at all stops, showing where you can board your bus.
The only problem here is that the details are shown in stop order, rather than by route or destination, so you need to work through the list to find your bus. I admit that the route numbers are quite prominent, but it still takes me a moment to work out that, having been dropped at stop 17, I only need to find stop 18, next door, for my next bus!
What is intended to be my last bus of the day, the X12, should take me all the way back to Newcastle, but it will take nearly two-and-a-half hours to get me there. The X in this case might represent “extra-long”…?
This is a StreetLite DF (a very long one – possibly an 11.3m StreetLite MAX); by coincidence it carries Arriva’s second-tier MAX branding. It’s not especially comfortable as legroom is quite tight – unusual for a StreetLite in my experience. But it’s a long run so I'm stuck with it!
We start by passing through Teesside Park, a sprawling retail park on the outskirts of town. Back through Stockton and then we’re into the countryside for a run to Sedgefield, where Sir Tony Blair, former Prime Minister, was the MP for 24 years.
It’s a pretty spot, unassuming, and presumably unaware of its contribution to Britain's political history. You can choose to dine at “The Impeccable Pig” or “The Pickled Parson of Sedgefield”, if you so wish!
Sedgefield
As we head towards Durham, and particularly around the environs of the University, the bus starts to get busy, to the point that it pulls into North Road, in Durham City Centre, with 34 passengers onboard. This is a temporary bus stand whilst the adjacent bus station is being rebuilt. We have an hour to go to Newcastle and I’m looking forward to seeing what route we take.
The striking viaduct that carries the East Coast Main Line over the city of Durham
Durham Castle and the River Wear
A driver change is taking place, but there’s no sign of the relief driver. The departing driver tries to contact his garage but can’t get through on the phone to find out where his relief is. After several minutes, during which time the departing driver stands on the front steps of the bus vaping, a number of passengers start to leave. Eventually, I decide that I need to leave as well. There are other ways back to Newcastle from Durham.
This is where I leave my Xs behind, so to speak! The plan has slightly collapsed, and I board a Go North East number 50 towards Washington. The bus would normally have been a single-decker at this time (I believe it has since been upgraded), but this one is a double-decker – and it’s very busy, being the start of the evening rush hour.
Go North East 6303 (NK16 BXC) is a Wright StreetDeck, seen in Chester-le-Street on a short-working of route 50 (Durham – South Shields). As you can tell by the wet road, the weather is on the turn.
By my reckoning, it’s also about 20 minutes late. It's terminating at The Galleries in Washington due to a driver shortage, rather than running through to South Shields. This has been a pre-planned part-cancellation and is advertised on the company website alongside other cancellations across the network.
It takes several minutes for the bus to finish loading. As we prepare to pull out, the X12 that I had left behind overtakes us and heads on towards Newcastle – looks like the driver turned up, then!
As we progress, I note that the youngsters in both front seats are making use of the USB chargers for their mobile phones – proof, if it were needed, that providing such mod-cons on buses works. They are both in their own worlds of course – headphones in and staring incessantly at their screens.
I decide to bail out at Chester-le-Street, from where there are several services available to Newcastle. One of the services on the 'next bus' display is for the next X12 – rub it in, why don’t you! Before it appears, though, a short working on Go North East route 21 pulls across from the other side of the road (four an hour turn here, with only two heading on to / from Durham).
There’s quite a crowd here, but the bus easily swallows them up. The skies are clouding over again and a heavy downpour will accompany us through the next half-hour or so of the journey. The 21 is the stopping version of the X21 that I started the day with. It looks like the X12 follows a similar route, with more stops than the X21 but fewer than the 21 (are you keeping up)?!
Go North East 6317 (NK67 GMU) is a Wright StreetDeck Micro Hybrid, also in Front Street, Chester-le-Street
Finally back into Newcastle, it’s been seven hours and 40 minutes of actual travel during the day, spread over nine hours and 20 minutes, during which time I have covered an estimated 143 miles. All for £10.90 – not bad!
Go North East 6317 (NK67 GMU) again, this time departing Eldon Square bus station in Newcastle-upon-Tyne