Day 5: Wednesday, 20th March 1991
I left Whitby at 09.53 on service X56 to Middlesbrough, operated by "Tees & District", which was a short-lived spin-off from the National Bus Company's United Automobile Services intended to generate competition, but which soon ended-up in the hands of the German government-owned Arriva. Although an "X" service, implying speed, it took longer to reach Middlesbrough than the service 93 which left at the same time but followed a more direct route. The 93 was a coach, whilst the X56 was the first (and as it turned out, the only) "Leyland National" bus of the trip.
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| A Leyland National in Middlesbrough |
The Leyland National was a joint effort between two state-owned enterprises: the National Bus Company (NBC) and British Leyland (BL), to develop a standard single-deck bus for the former's fleet. With 49 seats and standing room for another 20 or so passengers it was also intended to replace many double-deckers at a time of rapidly-declining patronage. NBC was such a huge customer that BL stopped producing its other models, many of which had been popular with other bus companies, who were now told they could only buy Nationals. Not only that, but BL, following the example of Henry Ford, made it available in any colour you liked, as long as it was a wishy-washy green or a garish light red. Only London Transport had sufficient clout to persuade BL to supply them in its own, more dignified, red livery. In 1991 the National had been out of production for six years but it still dominated many former NBC fleets and it is surprising that this was the only example I came across on the entire trip.
A trip highlight
The X56 took an hour-and-a-half to get to Middlesbrough due to it following a meandering coastal route, the highlight of which (and, indeed, of the entire trip) being the ascent of Saltburn Bank, a sharp ascent from sea level to the town centre with a gradient of 25% and several hairpin bends that would be familiar to a Swiss Post Bus driver. Rather than attempt to describe it, here is a You Tube clip, although the weather was better for my visit.
The X4, shown on the clip, is the present-day version of the X56!
So far on the journey I had been paying single fares on each bus, but in Middlesbrough I discovered the existence of the North East Explorer ticket. Explorer tickets were an NBC initiative and allowed unlimited travel on the company's buses for a set price, Most of them did not survive privatisation, but in the North East sufficient commonsense prevailed and they remained available on most buses despite the fragmentation of ownership. The ticket would be valid on all the rest of today's buses and I could have used it to travel from Whitby, had I known about it then.
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| Buses in Stockton Market Place |
After an hour in the town I made the very short hop over to Stockton-on-Tees. Unlike Middlesbrough, the town lacked a large central bus station with buses picking up around the market place, which seemed an acceptable arrangement.
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| Bus 20: Stockton-on-Tees to Durham |
Another lengthy journey followed, on another United Automobile bus, this time service 253 through what I described as "the industrial grot" of Teeside and the tattered remains of the Durham coalfield, including places such as Trimdon Colliery, to Durham itself on a not particularly comfortable single-decker arriving at 14.25. A quick connection here saw me finally regain the Great North Road and also saw another new bus operator come into play - this time "Go-Ahead Northern", as the privatised Northern General Omnibus Company had become. One of the first villages the service 723 double-decker passed through won the award for the best-named village of the trip: "Pity Me", followed shortly by the town of "Chester-le-Street" before reaching Newcastle at 15.30, where we pulled into the magnificent Worswick Street Bus Station.
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| Bus 21 (3rd from left): Durham to Newcastle |
Newcastle had, and still has, a number of bus stations in the city centre and Worswick Street was used by services coming across the River Tyne from the south. Buses drove in from the rear of the station and up a ramp to the stands, which was steep enough to require at one time a system of wheel-chocks to be in use, to prevent them slipping back down the slope! There are photos that illustrate this more clearly and text that explains the deficiencies of the chock-system on this link.http://www.old-bus-photos.co.uk/wp-content/themes/Old-Bus-Photos/galleries/newcastle_bus_stations/newcastle_bus_stations_ws.php (Sorry about showing the full address, Blogger won't let me include this any other way!)
"The Hotel"
It was still a little early to stop for the day, so from Worswick Street I walked the short distance to Gallowgate Coach Station to see what the options were to continue the journey north. The best bet seemed to be Northumbria Motor Services' (which despite the retro name was formed from the pre-privatisation break-up of United Automobile Services) service 414 to Morpeth, which had the twin advantages of heading due north and following the Great North Road. Morpeth, which I reached at 17.02, really was the place to call it a day. Buses onward were few and far between and the towns they served smaller and therefore less likely to have easily-found accommodation. Not that Morpeth was particularly easy in that respect. I should have known fron the way the lady in the Tourist Office slowly shook her head, sucked her teeth and said "Everywhere is very busy, I'm afraid it will have to be ----"the Hotel"!
Other than the cost - at £20.70 almost double the prices I'd been paying for B&Bs - I couldn't see what would be so bad about staying at an hotel, so I accepted the suggestion and she booked me in over the phone. I was back in Morpeth in 2018 passing through on my Around the County Towns bus tour when the bus I was on took me right past it. I recognised it straight away and have tracked it down on Street View:
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| My bed for the night in 1991 |
It's probably changed hands several times and now trades under a different name with decent online reviews, but at the time I thought it was awful. A grudging "welcome" at reception, payment in advance before seeing the room, no en-suite facilities (despite the price), no TV or radio in the room and, on a day when I had been unable to get much to eat and drink when travelling, not even a kettle to make a cup of tea! It felt more like a prison than a hotel!
But at least it was fairly central, so I didn't have far to walk into town for a meal and, as I recall, a few pints of Vaux Samson, brewed in Sunderland, in one of the few pubs I found selling cask-conditioned beer.
Today I was on the road for 7h 9m of which 4h 43m was wheel-turning time. Fares came to £6, although if I had known about the Explorer ticket that covered my travel for the rest of the day in Whitby I could have done it for an absolute bargain £3.50. Total fare for the trip was now £37.50.
Once I eventually regained the Great North Road in Durham I followed it faithfully all the way through Newcastle and on to Morpeth.
to be continued...
2 comments:
Northern General was a classy bus company, developing its own-brand SE6 3-axle single-deckers in the 1930s, looking like the London Transport Q-type, both well ahead of their time. More recently, Northern General bought new Routemasters, the only operator outside London to do so. As you well know, dozens of companies acquired them second-hand - and there are many Routemasters still earning a decent income as wedding buses (pre-Covid).
Tees and District was very short lived and it was made up of the Whitby,Loftus, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Redar United depots possibly Stokesley if it remained open that long?Tees was split quite a time after United left NBC ownership.The NBC split was Scarborough and District (transferred to East Yorkshire but effectively run as a separate company) and Northumbria with the middle bit remaining United.With the Newcastle bus stations Worsick Street was owned by Northern, Haymarket by United,Gallowgate by United,the Bus Concourse by the PTE.Marlborough Crescent I'm not sure as it had shut by my travels but it would have been either United or Northern.
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