JOHN YOUNG takes a trip from North Shields to Berwick-upon-Tweed, experiencing some of the UK’s most scenic bus services
Wednesday, August 10 presented an opportunity for a day out by bus using the services of Arriva North East, starting from North Shields and travelling north to end in Berwick-upon-Tweed, the northern extremity of the operator’s network. The direct distance is approximately 65 miles, but our planned route was not exactly direct and would take us all day.
North Shields town centre is undergoing redevelopment with Bedford Street closed to traffic and some of the main bus stops closed and relocated as a result. Understanding the temporary routes and stops took some fathoming out, but we located a stop for our first journey of the day, service 53 to Cramlington, and boarded at around 08:00. The departure time on the stop suggested a retiming of a few minutes later from our previous information. A lady sought clarification that the 53 stopped at our stop, but shortly afterwards was offered a lift by a friend.
Our bus was a green liveried Wright Streetlite, standard fare on this route. Two customers were already on when we boarded and another boarded at the next stop. Mild amusement was c…
