£7m investment to boost Go North East bus services

Mar 3 2010 by Karen Dent, The Journal

BUS group Go North East is investing around £7m to improve services and expand the business as recession-hit passengers begin to hop back on the bus.

The region’s biggest bus operator, which employs around 2,000 people locally and is part of the Go-Ahead group, is spending £1.5m on top-of-the-range Mercedes Benz buses, as well as boosting services, transferring to smart card technology and introducing WiFi on some longer distance services.

Managing director Peter Huntley said: “In terms of capital expenditure it will be £3.5m this year and the same again next year.

“The Go-Ahead group believes in local autonomy. We are very different to our colleagues in Brighton, Bolton, Plymouth or elsewhere.

“The North East is responding and we’re able to work with the community and grow. It’s not the case in all parts of the country, where they are seeing serious retraction in some places.”

The operator, which works with staff and passenger forums to suggest improvements, said that people were starting to get back on the bus after the recession hit growth.

Mr Huntley said: “In the last few weeks, we’ve seen the return to some growth. Until May last year, we were getting a continuous growth against a backdrop of 20 years of decline in the North East.”

One of the largest areas of expansion is among students commuting to university.

“The big boom market between Teesside and Tyneside and places in between is students. They seem to be opting to stay at home and then travel to university,” said Mr Huntley.

They will be able to take advantage of the WiFi service coming online in Go North East buses between Tyneside and Teesside, which is a first for the region’s buses.

Smartcard technology which allows passengers to use a single card on different bus operators plus the Metro will be installed by the end of the year.