Go North East

British bus operator

Go North East operates both local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It was previously known as the Northern General Transport Company and Go Ahead Northern. The company was the foundation of today's Go Ahead Group, which now operates bus and rail services across the United Kingdom, as well as Germany, Ireland, Norway and Singapore.

In October 1986, at the time of bus deregulation in Great Britain, the company operated from fourteen depots: Chester le Street, Consett, Gateshead, High Spen, Houghton le Spring, Jarrow, Murton, Percy Main, South Shields, Stanley, Sunderland, Wallsend, Washington and Winlaton. As part of the privatisation of the National Bus Company, a management buyout led by Chris Moyes and Martin Ballinger saw the purchase of the Northern General Transport Company in February 1987.

Early expansion saw the acquisition of a number of smaller competing bus operators in the region, including Langley Park based Gypsy Queen in January 1990. In February 1990, the company's Murton depot was closed, with the loss of 20 jobs. The remaining 109 staff were redeployed to other nearby depots in Houghton le Spring and Sunderland. In September 1990, the loss making depot at Jarrow, and High Spen, which was making a marginal profit, were closed. Following the closures, a total of 20 jobs were lost, with a further 150 staff redeployed. By January 1991, the parent company was split in to five separate subsidiary companies: Coastline, Go Ahead Gateshead, Go Ahead Northern, VFM and Wear Buses. In March 1995, the Go Ahead Group acquired Bishop Auckland based OK Motor Services for £5.4 million. Following the acquisition, many of OK's staff, including the general manager, Charles Marshall, became employees of Go Ahead. OK initially became one of Go Ahead's locally managed subsidiaries, with Marshall remaining in charge. Go Ahead later took steps to streamline the business, with several of the group's earlier acquisitions transferred to OK. In August 1998, a new depot was opened on Deptford Terrace, Sunderland. This saw the closure of the nearby Park Lane depot, which was demolished to allow the development of the current Park Lane Interchange, which opened in May 1999, ahead of the introduction of Tyne and Wear Metro services between Pelaw and South Hylton via Sunderland. Additionally, the company's depot at Philadelphia Lane, Houghton le Spring, was also closed at this time. The depot remained in situ until the early 2020s, until it was demolished to allow for redevelopment of the area.

In February 2005, the company's depot in South Shields was closed, with operations transferred to Sunderland (Deptford). The following year, in March 2006, Bishop Auckland depot and some operations were acquired by Arriva North East. Remaining operations transferred to Chester le Street, with the company retaining an, albeit smaller, presence in and around the town. In October 2007, the company acquired Stanley based operator Stanley Taxis, which operated both commercial and tendered local bus services in County Durham and Tyne and Wear. At the time of acquisition, operations consisted of a fleet of 13 vehicles and 16 staff.

In March 2010, the company swapped around 50 staff and half a dozen routes, as well as depots in Ashington and Hexham, with Arriva North East, allowing both companies to consolidate their operations. In June 2010, the company was awarded a five year contract to operate the QuayLink network of services. Award of the contract saw the introduction of a fleet of nine Euro 5 diesel powered single deck Optare Versa. In January 2012, as a celebration of the company's centenary year, the OK Motor Services branding was briefly revived, following the introduction of two routes serving Bishop Auckland, Crook and Darlington. In February 2014, depots in Gateshead (Sunderland Road) and Winlaton were replaced by an £8.5million "super depot", known as Riverside. The site, located in Dunston was constructed with capacity for over 160 vehicles and 500 staff. In June 2018, Hull based East Yorkshire Motor Services was acquired by the Go Ahead Group, bringing an end to 30 years of family ownership. Following acquisition, the company was rebranded as East Yorkshire and operated as a standalone company within Go North East. In March 2019, after almost 100 years in service, Stanley depot was closed. Following closure, operations were subsequently moved to a new depot at Hownsgill Industrial Estate in Consett, which is located on the site of the former Consett Steelworks. The £3.5million depot was constructed with the capacity for 63 vehicles and 180 staff. In December 2019, a "farewell" event was held to mark the retirement of the final remaining Scania L94 vehicles – the first of which joined the fleet in March 2001. The fleet, including four articulated vehicles, grew to a total of 87 of the type – the last of which entered service in 2006.

In July 2020, the company's first fully electric zero emission vehicle trial took place, with a single deck Optare Metrocity serving a series of routes in Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne and North Tyneside. Following this, in November 2020, the first of a fleet of nine zero emission single deck Yutong E10 were introduced on routes 53 and 54, as part of a jointly funded project between Go North East and the UK Government's Ultra Low Emission Bus Fund – at a cost of £3.7 million. In February 2022, a further zero emission vehicle trial took place on route 21, with the evaluation of a Wright StreetDeck Electroliner double deck vehicles. In March 2022, the company's depot in Peterlee, an outstation of Sunderland (Deptford) depot was closed, with operations transferred to nearby depots in Chester le Street and Sunderland (Deptford). In June 2022, just over four years after acquisition, it was announced that East Yorkshire would be split from Go North East, becoming a separate company within the Go Ahead Group. Following the departure of Martijn Gilbert in August 2022, the former Go North West Managing Director, Nigel Featham, assumed Gilbert's role at Go North East. At East Yorkshire, former Area Manager, Ben Gilligan, was promoted to Managing Director. In September 2023, following the closure of Arriva North East's Jesmond depot, Go North East took over operation of a number of the company's routes in Newcastle upon Tyne and North Tyneside, which were subsequently rebranded as North Tyne Rockets. At the time of transfer, routes were operated by a fleet of single deck Wright StreetLite buses, branded in a purple livery.

In late 2023, operations suffered serious disruption, due to strike action by employees. Organised by Unite the Union, the first strikes each took place for a period of one week, beginning 30 September 2023 and 14 October 2023 respectively. Following this, union members began an indefinite strike on 28 October 2023 – during which no services across the region, with the exception of some school and works services, operated. A limited intra peak hour service was introduced on certain routes from 14 November 2023. The strike was brought to an end on 1 December 2023, when union members voted in favour of an improved pay offer, with normal service resuming the following day. Following the strike, a special promotion was introduced whereby customers were able to travel on the network free of charge between 2–8 December 2023.

As of January 2024, the company operates from seven bus depots across the region: Consett (Hownsgill), Gateshead (Riverside and Saltmeadows Road), Hexham, Percy Main, Sunderland (Deptford) and Washington.

As of May 2023, the fleet consists of 599 buses and coaches. The fleet consists mainly of diesel powered single and double deck buses manufactured by Alexander Dennis, Optare, Volvo and Wrightbus. The company also operate a fleet of eighteen fully electric single deck buses: nine Yutong E10, introduced in November 2020, Route branding has since led to the company adopting a multi coloured fleet of vehicles across the region. In 2013, an updated standard fleet livery was introduced, which saw the red, blue and yellow colour scheme phased out. The rebranding exercise saw vehicles without route branding painted in an all over red colour scheme. This proved to be short lived, with the standard fleet livery further updated in 2016. Vehicles were repained red at the front, and blue at the back, separated by a white strip, with a tagline and website featuring above the windows on single deck buses, or below the lower deck windows on double deck buses. In 2019, a number of minor adjustments were made to the, now standard, standard fleet livery – including the use of a lighter shade of blue at the rear and replacement of the curved white separation strip with a double white and yellow diagonal line. At the time of the refresh, only around one third of vehicles in the fleet wore the standard fleet livery. with a number of single and double deck buses used on local and regional services, as well as private hire and contract services, following later. As well as local and regional bus services, the company also operate coach services under contract to National Express. Vehicles are painted in an all white livery, featuring the client's distinctive blue and red logo.