Looking Back - The North East

Continuing our looking back theme here's a selection of pictures taken in the north east during 2016.
Go North East, Stagecoach and Arriva all play a large part in the area. Go North East are well known for their colourful, attractive liveries, whilst Stagecoach and Arriva usually stay close to corporate colours, with a few exceptions.

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Looking Back - Railways 2016

More 'Looking Back' pictures from Martin, this time focusing on Railways

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More Looking Back

A 2016 selection from Martin Arrand including Kirkby Stephen, Winchester and finishing at Lincoln in November.

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Looking back - Around & About

A selection of month by month images from around some of the English counties during the year

January - Chesterfield - Redfern Travel Scania/Northern Counties ex.London Buses S44

February - Chatsworth Park - TM Travel 604 Scania/Wright Solar

March - Bodham, Norfolk - Sanders 121 Scania N230UD/Optare Olympus ex.Johnsons(Warwicks)

April - Manchester Leigh Busway - First Manchester 39248 Volvo B5LH/Wright Eclipse Gemini 3

May - Potteries Rally Stoke-on-Trent -Iveco Irisbus Euromidi Vehixcel Scolabus

June - near Retford - Flying Scotsman 60103 on the East Coast Main Line

July - Sheringham, Norfolk -  Shearings Holidays 640 Scania S416GD

August - City of York - Transdev Dennis MPD & First Volvo/Wright single-decks

September - Holt, Norfolk - Great Yarmouth 66 an all-Leyland PD2 on special service

October - West Runton, Norfolk - Abellio Greater Anglia 156422 on the Bitterne Line

November - Lincoln - LVVS Rally Marshalls OP102 Optare Versa

December - Harrogate - Parks of Hamilton (NBW 999) Volvo B9R/Plaxton Elite

Looking Back - Gran Canaria

This week we are looking back at 2016 and today we look at the transport scene in Gran Canaria.

The buses (mostly coaches) cover most of the island, running frequent services and are run by Global.

 Above & below, Scania vehicles are the most popular on the island

GLOBAL is the largest Spanish social economy enterprise (employees being worker-partners) in the passenger transport sector. It was created on 17 March 2000 as the result of a merger of the two intercity passenger transport operators in Gran Canaria: Salcai, covering the south-southeast routes, and Utinsa, covering the central-northern routes.
Global supports cultural, education and environmental projects that help to care for the environment and support sustainable development.
It has a staff of 769, a fleet of 308 vehicles that travel more than 27 million km a year on the 121 routes throughout Gran Canaria, and more than 25 million passengers a year who count on Global for their journeys throughout the island.

Global has operations in a variety of sectors, including transport, software, marketing, training, consultancy, real estate, station management and communications, all within GRUPO GLOBAL.
Our holiday base was in Puerto de Mogan in the south west of the island and as most of my holiday was spent in and around the hotel pool I can't really tell you a massive amount about the routes.
My pictures are mostly taken in the bus station in Puerto de Mogan - I use the term 'bus station' lightly as the pictures illustrate!
Click here http://www.globalsu.net/en/concesiones.php and you can see a map showing all routes operated. The website also shows suggestions for using the bus services incorporating walks.

 Many vehicles have received the dreaded advertising treatment.
It hardly enhances their appearance and makes it difficult for
passengers to admire the views of the island

Regular visitors told us how easy it was to use the buses to get around the island and to incorporate them into walking and exploring.
Anyway, we were so busy swimming and sunbathing at the hotel that we only managed one short ride from Puerto de Mogan to Mogan travelling one of the few mini bus routes in this part of the island. These Iveco vehicles seem to be a fairly recent addition to the fleet.
All other main routes are served by full size coaches, some of which are tri-axle vehicles. Scania has been the main choice by Global until recently but now Iveco and Volvo vehicles have appeared. All passengers normally board and alight via the front entrance but the vehicles do have central doors equipped with a wheelchair lift.
The bus station in Puerto de Mogan is just a strip of unsurfaced land on the edge of the town. The services are well used and fares seem good value.

 Iveco vehicles have now appeared in the fleet. The Iveco coach on the right has received contravision advertising 

 The basic interiors offer high backed seats

 The facilities are minimal at Puerto de Mogan, but the services are well used

 A Volvo vehicle reverses into line and creates a dust cloud as it does so

 Above & below, Iveco minibuses have recently joined the Global fleet

 A Volvo tri-axle vehicle and below, all full size vehicles offer wheelchair access via the central doors

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