North East Pronto

 V305 LGC on Newgate Street Newcastle, at it prepares to leave Newcastle
and travel south on the 30 mile journey to  Bishop Auckland making
 the £3.90 return ticket seem good value. (click to enlarge photo)

Go North East have introduced  fast services from Newcastle and Sunderland to Bishop Auckland under the Pronto brand, using refurbished ex London Volvo B7TL's in a new, blue livery with green, white and red vinyls.
Buses leave Newcastle and Sunderland at 29 and 04 past the hour respectively and combine in Durham to give a half hourly service to Bishop Auckland.
The Newcastle to Durham part of the route competes with Arriva's established X2 service that follows the same route to Durham, similar limited stopping points and a similar journey time of around 50 minutes.
Go North East seem to introduce new services almost every month in an effort to continue their passenger growth. Recent new services include the X3 Red Arrows service between Newcastle and Sunderland and from 5th November, the new X11 from Hartlepool to Newcastle on Saturdays, which will also boost capacity on the busy existing section between Peterlee and Newcastle. Evening services have also been boosted for Peterlee and Billingham.
David Gambles

 V334 LGC arrives at Eldon Square Bus station in Newcastle on one of the first days of the new Pronto service.
OmniCity on the 'West Durham Swift' service is alongside. It is rumored that the 'West Durham Swift' services
will receive new Volvo B9TL/ Wright Eclipse Gemini 2's. Twenty one of which are said to be on order for 2012.
(click to enlarge)