FOCUS ON THE NORTH OF ENGLAND
Go North East has refined the individual route brands introduced around 12 years ago and has changed some of its fares deals to meet challenges thrown up by the Covid pandemic. DAVID JENKINS reports.
North-east England is still good bus country. More journeys by bus per head of population are made there than in any other part of England, and double those for Wales.
With much of it rural, many passengers are packed into its town and cities, but above all in Tyne & Wear where each person makes the equivalent of 129 journeys annually, the fourth highest bus use in the country.
Fortunately this is the heart of the operating territory of Go North East, now the local subsidiary of a global business that was spawned by the £3million (£8.5million at today’s prices) management buyout of predecessor Northern General from the National Bus Company in May 1987. It still has a depot in Chester-le-Street, where the business was founded in 1913.
It has undergone several transformations since, perhaps most notably under Peter Huntley’s stewardship as managing director between 2006 and 2011, when route branding was extended over much of the network, almost eliminating the company’s base identity.
