Go North East


Go North East is the largest of the three main bus operators in the North East of England, the others being Arriva North East and Stagecoach North East. It operates both local and regional services within and across Tyne and Wear, County Durham, Northumberland and Teesside. The company also operates services in the East Riding of Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and York, under the East Yorkshire brand.
The company was previously known as the Northern General Transport Company, and Go-Ahead Northern. It was the foundation of today's Go-Ahead Group.

History

In February 1987, as part of the privatisation of the National Bus Company, a management buyout led by Martin Ballinger and Chris Moyes saw the purchase of the Northern General Transport Company. It was the first company of what is now the Go-Ahead Group.
Early expansion saw the acquisition of certain smaller competing bus operators in North East England, including Gypsy Queen in 1989, and Low Fell Coaches in June 1992. Go-Ahead Northern also became a National Express contractor, operating services to the Midlands, North East, North West and South West of England.
Until the early 2000s, Go North East operated local services in the Darlington. The company also operated from a depot in Bishop Auckland, which closed in 2006, with the majority of local services transferred to Arriva North East.
In June 2018, East Yorkshire Motor Services was acquired by Go-Ahead, bringing an end to 30 years of family ownership. Now re-branded as East Yorkshire, it will continue to run as a standalone company within Go North East.

Fleet and operations

A large part of the Go North East fleet is made up of vehicles manufactured by Alexander Dennis, Optare, Volvo and Wrightbus. As of 5th July 2020, the fleet consists of 684 buses and coaches.
Operations were previously split between a North and South division. However, all operations are now under one management structure.
The former North division operated services in Gateshead, North Tyneside, West Durham, Northumberland and the Tyne Valley.
The former South division operated services in Sunderland, County Durham and South Tyneside, as well as National Express coach services.

Depots

As of March 2020, Go North East operate from nine bus depots:
Go North East introduced route branding in 2006 – a practice which involves giving each service, or group of services, a recognisable identity, colour scheme and logo. Route branding has led to Go North East adopting a multi-coloured fleet. Examples of Go North East's route branding include Angel, Green Arrow, QuayLink, Tynedale Links and X-Lines.
For many years, Go North East's fleet livery consisted of red, light blue and yellow. Following this, vehicles without route branding were painted in a red base, carrying Northern logos. By the end of 2013, the Northern logos began to be replaced, with the company opting to instead use the Go North East corporate logo.
In 2016, a new corporate livery was introduced, with vehicles painted red at the front, and blue at the back, separated by a white strip, with a tagline and website featuring above the windows.
This proved to be short-lived, and in 2019, a new-style corporate livery has been introduced. This features a lighter shade of blue at the rear, with the curved white separation strip being replaced with a double white and yellow line.
Coaches operating services under contract to National Express are painted in the client's livery, featuring company's blue and red logo.
A series of Go North East's private hire coaches are currently being repainted in to retro-inspired heritage liveries, as part of the Northern Coaching operation.

Gallery