Where?
- One Stop, Many Names...Confusion Over The Different Names Used By Different Bus Companies For The Same Stop.

Entries to our Guestbook during July 2003 have highlighted the problem of different bus companies calling the same stop (often on the same route) by different names. Also, in some cases the name the bus company knows a stop by is entirely different to its official (NEXUS approved) name as indicated on the bus stop itself.

Obviously, this can only cause confusion for the travelling public, especially those not familiar with the route, or of the variations in bus stop names used by the different bus companies. As a result, some passengers may be charged a higher fare to travel to a stop beyond their intended destination just so that the driver can identify a bus stop name he's familiar with. This unintentional overcharging cannot be good for customer relations.

We tested out some of the claims and our results are shown below.

Billy Mill Lane (Service 308 and Service 356)

The 308 service runs every 15 minutes in both directions between Newcastle upon Tyne and Blyth via Whitley Bay, and the buses on this route come from both Arriva Northumbria and Go-North East, alternating between each company for at least part of the day.

A a result of this one route being operated by two different companies, you could end up on either an Arriva or a Go-North East service, depending on what time of the day you go to catch a 308. This provides plenty of scope for bus stop name confusion when each company knows the same stop by different names.

The stop at the top of Billy Mill Lane, stop immediately before the Rake Lane Roundabout, is known as Murton House Farm by Arriva Northumbria (services 308, 356 and 442). Although there is no official name on the bus stop in question, the one opposite is called Billy Mill Lane by NEXUS, so we assume th0is one is known by the same name, too. As for what this stop is called by Go-North East (servive 308), it's anyone's guess because their drivers don't recognise either name, and have so far charged passengers a higher fare to travel to Foxhunters and Jackson's Farm as a result of the bus stop name confusion.

Route Number	Place Where Boarded	Intended Destination (Official NEXUS Name)	Destination As It Appears On Ticket	Price	Day	Date
308 (Go- North East)	St. Mary's Place, Newcastle	Billy Mill Lane (The bus stop before Rake Lane Roundabout)	Jacksons Farm	£1.50	Thursday	14 Aug 2003
Ticket

Route Number	Place Where Boarded	Intended Destination (Official NEXUS Name)	Destination As It Appears On Ticket	Price	Day	Date
308 (Arriva)	St. Mary's Place, Newcastle	Billy Mill Lane (The bus stop before Rake Lane Roundabout)	Murton House Farm	£1.45	Tuesday	3 Sept 2003
Ticket

One final point regarding the 308 service, if Jackson's Farm is the Go-North East name for the bus stop at Murton House Farm (Arriva) / Billy Mill Lane (NEXUS), why does it cost £1.50 on Go-North East buses to travel from Newcastle upon Tyne, when it only costs £1.45 on Arriva buses? Aren't they're providing exactly the same service over exactly the same 308 route?

For a map which shows the vicinity of the intended destination referred to by these tickets, please click here.
For details of the bus route, click here for a 308 map (from Arriva's Web Site), or click here for a 308 timetable (from Go-North East's Web Site). Please note, both the map and the timetable are in .pdf format and require Adobe Acrobat to be able to view them.

Chirton Green (Service 356 and Service 301)

The Arriva 356 service runs every 30 minutes in both directions between Newcastle upon Tyne and North Shields via Gosforth and Killingworth.

The Go-North East 301 service runs every 30 minutes in both directions between Whitley Bay Holiday Park and Gateshead Metro (Gateshead Metrocentre, Sat/Sun only) via North Shields and Wallsend.

Although travelling in different directions and alighting from the buses used on opposite sides of the road, the destination bus stops in this example remain the same and carry the name Chirton Green: their official NEXUS assigned name. This is also the name used for this/these stop(s) in the official timetables, so we assume this is what they should be known as by the drivers.

However, asking for Chirton Green as your destination often elicits a puzzled look from the drivers before they offer "Chirton Post Office", or "the one before/after The Rex" (depending on direction of travel) as a possible alternative. As it turns out, they are referring to the Chirton Green bus stop, except that the Post Office relocated possibly more than 7 years ago, and The Rex was demolished almost as many years ago, too. Therefore, anyone not knowing that these long-gone landmarks used to occupy a position near to this stop will be totally lost/confused.

Route Number	Place Where Boarded	Intended Destination (Official NEXUS Name)	Destination As It Appears On Ticket	Day	Date
301 (Go-North East)	North Shields (beside florist, West Percy Street)	Chirton Green	Chirton P.O.	Tuesday	19 Aug 2003
Ticket

Route Number	Place Where Boarded	Intended Destination (Official NEXUS Name)	Destination As It Appears On Ticket	Day	Date
356 (Arriva)	Billy Mill Lane (The bus stop before Rake Lane Roundabout)	Chirton Green	Chirton zb	Thursday	21 Aug 2003
Ticket

For a map which shows the vicinity of the intended destination referred to by these tickets, please click here.
For details of the 301 and 356 bus routes, click here for a 301 timetable (from Go-North East's Web Site) or click here for a 356 timetable (from Arriva's Web Site). Please note, these timetables are in .pdf format and require Adobe Acrobat to be able to view them.

Appeal

If you know of any other bus stops / routes where different names are used for the same stop by different bus companies, or the name the stop is known by differes from the name on the bus stop itself, let us know.

Please note: we would be delighted to correct any mistakes in the information we supply here, so if you spot an error, please contact us via our email address, and we will make the correction asap.

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