QuayCity 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, Newcastl ...

, England, which connects

Newcastle Great Park Newcastle Great Park is a new suburb in the north of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Much of Newcastle Great Park is still under development and is sandwiched in between older areas of Newcastle, namely Gosforth, Fawdon and Kingston Park to the so ...

and

Wallsend Wallsend is a town in North Tyneside, England, at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 43,842 and lies east of Newcastle upon Tyne. History Roman Wallsend In Roman times, this was the site of the fort of Segedunum. This fo ...

via

Gosforth Gosforth is a suburb of the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It constituted a separate Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland), urban district from 1895 until 1974 before officially merging with the city of New ...

Jesmond Jesmond is a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, situated to the east of the Town Moor. Jesmond is considered to be one of the most affluent suburbs of Newcastle upon Tyne, with higher average house prices than most other areas of the city. H ...

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

Quayside The Quayside is an area along the banks (quay) of the River Tyne in Newcastle upon Tyne (the north bank) and Gateshead (south bank) in Tyne and Wear, North East England, United Kingdom. History The area was once an industrial area and busy com ...

Ouseburn The Ouseburn is a small river in Newcastle upon Tyne, England that flows through the city of Newcastle upon Tyne into the River Tyne. It gives its name to the Ouseburn Valley and the Ouseburn electoral ward for Newcastle City Council elections ...

and

Walker Walker or The Walker may refer to: People *Walker (given name) *Walker (surname) *Walker (Brazilian footballer) (born 1982), Brazilian footballer Places In the United States *Walker, Arizona, in Yavapai County *Walker, Mono County, California * ...

History

The service was introduced on 26 July 2015, following the merger of existing routes Q2 and X40. It operated under the

QuayLink QuayLink was a bus service in Tyne and Wear, England, which connected Gateshead and Newcastle upon Tyne, and later North Tyneside, with the Quayside. Funded by the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive, the service was launched on 22 July ...

name, with vehicles branded in a two-tone yellow and green livery. Initially operating between Great Park and St Peter's Basin, the service was extended to Wallsend on 31 July 2016. From 21 June 2017,

contactless payment Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC, e.g. Samsun ...

s were introduced, as part of a trial. It was later rolled out across the network. On 14 December 2020, the QuayLink branding was dropped and the route was rebranded QuayCity. A new two-tone yellow and black livery was introduced. On 27 March 2022, the route was curtailed beyond St Peter's Basin, with services running between Great Park and St Peter's Basin only. On the same date, the route was also amended to run via

. On 24 July 2022, the service was renumbered QA & QB, reflecting the direction travelled around Great Park. Changes also saw the link between St Peter's Basin and Wallsend via Walker restored. By September 2022, the service reverted to its previous number, Q3.

Route

As of September 2022, the service runs up to every 15 minutes during the day (Monday–Saturday) between Great Park and St Peter's Basin, with a half-hourly extension to Wallsend. Services operate half-hourly during the evening and on Sunday between Great Park and St Peter's Basin only.

Fleet and operations

The service is currently operated by a fleet of nine battery electric

Yutong E12 The Yutong E10, also sold as the longer Yutong E12, is a battery electric single-decker bus manufactured by Yutong in Zhengzhou since 2016 for both Chinese and international bus operators. The Yutong E10 debuted in China in 2016, transporting ...

single-deck vehicles, branded in a mustard and black variant of the silver-based '' Voltra'' livery and carrying over features such as free WiFi, audio-visual next stop announcements and USB charging points specified on previous ''Voltra'' buses. These replaced a fleet of nine diesel

Optare Versa The Optare Versa is a low-floor midibus that was manufactured by Optare at its Sherburn-in-Elmet factory. In total 883 were produced between 2007 and 2018.Euro VI The European emission standards are vehicle emission standards for pollution from the use of new land surface vehicles sold in the European Union and EEA member states and the UK, and ships in EU waters. The standards are defined in a seri ...

emissions standard in advance of the launch of Newcastle's

Clean Air Zone A Clean Air Zone (CAZ) is an area in the United Kingdom where targeted action is taken to improve air quality. A CAZ can be non-charging or charging. Whether a vehicle is charged when entering or moving through a CAZ depends on the type of vehicl ...

References

External links

* {{commons-inline
Timetable and route map
Bus routes in Tyne and Wear