Go North East, the region’s largest bus company, will resume the running of its AD122 Hadrian’s Wall Country Bus from tomorrow (Saturday 4 July) to help support the opening of businesses and attractions.
The return of the AD122 bus will help workers and visitors at businesses and attractions get to their destination if they are unable to use other forms of transport.
Attractions opening from tomorrow include The Sill, Roman Army Museum, Vindolanda, Chesters Roman Fort, Corbridge Roman Town, Birdoswald Roman Fort and Housesteads Roman Fort, with any visitors having to book online in advance.
There are many safety measures now in place on board buses to aid social distancing and stop the spread of coronavirus, including the requirement of wearing a face covering and enhanced cleaning, so if you have not travelled for a while you should check out the latest guidance on Go North East’s website, which also includes a short helpful information video.
Go North East has also introduced two new website tools to aid social distancing. The first, ‘When2Travel’, allows customers to look at journeys up to two weeks ahead, using a sophisticated prediction engine to forecast how quiet the bus will be on each journey and down to individual parts of the journey.
The second tool, ‘how many seats are left on my bus?’, complements ‘When2Travel’ by showing customers live data on the day, displaying how quiet or busy the bus is in real-time, as well as indicating if it is a single or double-decker.
From tomorrow, Go North East will also be increasing its weekend services, whilst maintaining the early morning key worker journeys they have been running, to help support the opening of more shops, pubs and some leisure businesses across the region.
Weekday journeys will remain as they are now, with buses running to timetables that are similar to their pre-coronavirus times and are continuing to provide sufficient capacity for everyone who needs to use the bus.
Martijn Gilbert, managing director at Go North East, said: “We’re glad to be bringing back our AD122 bus to help support workers and visitors at businesses and attractions for whom public transport is the only choice.
“We hope in the not too distant future we’ll be able to welcome more people back onboard to see the sights and delights of Hadrian’s Wall Country.”
To find out more about Go North East’s AD122 bus visit www.gonortheast.co.uk/ad122 and for further information about Hadrian’s Wall head to www.hadrianswallcountry.co.uk.