Cityrider is a bus service in

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newc ...

, England, which connects

Springwell Village Springwell Village is a village in the City of Sunderland, bordering Gateshead, approximately from Newcastle upon Tyne, from Sunderland, and from Durham. In 2011, Census data for the City of Sunderland ward of Washington West recorded a tota ...

Wrekenton Wrekenton is a residential area in Gateshead, located around from Newcastle upon Tyne, from Sunderland, and from Durham. In 2011, Census data for the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council ward of ''High Fell'' recorded a total population of ...

, Gateshead and

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

with

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Hylton Castle Hylton Castle ( ) is a stone castle in the North Hylton area of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England. Originally built from wood by the Hilton (later Hylton) family shortly after the Norman Conquest in 1066, it was later rebuilt in stone in ...

and Sunderland.

History

The service was formerly branded as ''Fab Fifty Six'', with a number of

Volvo B9TL The Volvo B9TL is a low-floor double-decker bus built by Volvo from 2002 until 2018. It superseded the Volvo Super Olympian and the Volvo B7TL. The 2-axle version has been superseded by the Volvo B5TL in 2014 and the 3-axle version has been su ...

Wright Gemini 2 The Wright Gemini 2 is a double-decker bus built by Wrightbus between 2009 and 2013. It was announced in December 2007 but was not named until 2008. It was constructed as a semi-integral vehicle, with chassis modules provided by VDL. The bodywo ...

double-deck vehicles branded in a floral orange livery. Prior to the service's upgrade in January 2014, it was operated by

Scania L94UB The Scania 4-series low floor city bus and coach range was introduced by Scania in 1997 as a successor to the 3-series bus range. The 4-series bus range was first presented in September 1996, when the integral low-floor city bus OmniCity was ...

Wright Solar The Wright Solar is a low entry single-decker bus body that was built on Scania L94UB and Scania K UB chassis by Wrightbus between 2000 and 2011. The Wright Solar Fusion is an articulated version. Most of the buses are fitted with the same ...

single-deck vehicles in the ''Fab Fifty Six'' livery. Go North East bus 5205 Scania L94 Wrightbus NK54 NUY Fab Fifty Six livery in Newcastle 3 April 2009

Go North East bus 5205 Scania L94 Wrightbus NK54 NUY Fab Fifty Six livery in Newcastle 3 April 2009

In May 2009, night services were introduced on Friday and Saturday nights. In January 2014, 17

Eclipse Gemini

double-decker bus A double-decker bus or double-deck bus is a bus that has two storeys or decks. They are used for mass transport in the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, Europe, Asia and also in cities such as Sydney; the best-known example is the ...

es were introduced on the route. In summer 2020, some services on this route were operated with open-top buses. A daily 24-hour service was introduced in May 2021. It is currently one of three services (including services 21 and 60) operated by Go North East which run to a daily 24-hour service.

Service and operations

The service currently operates between Newcastle and Sunderland up to every 15 minutes (Monday to Saturday), up to every 20 minutes on Sunday and half-hourly during the evening. Services also operate throughout the night on an hourly frequency. It is currently operated by a fleet of Euro 6

double-deck vehicles, branded in a two-tone orange and red livery.

References

{{reflist 56 Cityrider