About Stagecoach North East

We’re Stagecoach North East.

We’ve been running bus services in Newcastle, Sunderland, South Shields, Teesside and Hartlepool for many years, and we continue to play an important role in helping people access work, education, health, shopping and leisure.

Here in the North East, we’re proud to be many things to many people. Pop into town on one of our local services. Heading off on holiday? We’ll get your journey off to a great start on one of our airport services. Need to find an easy, affordable way to help your staff get to work? Our Stagecoach Solutions team is ready to help.

You probably know us as the local bus company but, fun fact, we’re part of one of the largest bus operators in the UK.

Our parent company, Stagecoach Group, which was founded in 1980 as one of the most successful transport start-ups. For four decades, Stagecoach transport services have transported billions of people, helped to build strong local economies and provided a greener way to travel. Stagecoach Group, also looks after megabus.com, our intercity coach company that connects communities across longer distances.

Our customers

Our customers are at the heart of what we do. Every day around 2.5 million people trust us to get them where they need to be. Whether it’s Michael on his way to a job interview, using the bus for the first time in ages or Sarah who’s making her twice-weekly trip to see her grandkids, Jake taking the school bus or Jasmine heading back to university, our services are an important part of the community.

We love our regular customers, getting to know their routines and sharing in their day-to-day lives. It’s always great to welcome new faces on board, too, and we’re happy to help get them where they need to be.

Our people

It’s our people who make our North East services so special. They do more than make the wheels go round; they are the very spirit of Stagecoach. From bus drivers to engineers, cleaners and customer service staff, there are over 1,300 of us working together to help Stagecoach reach our goal of becoming the UK’s favourite and most successful public transport company.

But it doesn’t stop there. We also support around 10,000 jobs nationally through our supply chain. That’s a lot of people and creating an inclusive workforce is a responsibility that we take seriously. For instance, we’re proud to say that the number of female bus drivers continues to grow each year and we celebrate diversity across the whole business.

The future of Stagecoach relies on supporting our country’s young people. We’ve been at the forefront of championing apprentices in our workforce for years. Right now there are over 800 apprentices across our business in England, Scotland and Wales. Our apprenticeship scheme is award-winning and can help deliver the skills needed to support the new technologies and fleets of the future.

Our communities

While we may have seen a lot of change in our four decades of business, our mission has always been the same: connecting people and communities.

Our depots up and down the North East are proud to be a part of day-to-day life in their community Whether it’s getting to know the names and faces of regular customers or supporting local causes, we care about our communities.

In partnership with Newcastle United Foundation, we have provided free travel for hundreds of young people participating in the NUF Summer Programme, by donating travel vouchers to help them reach their destination safely.

Working with our official charity partner, The Chronicle Sunshine Fund, our Newcastle depots have raised almost £100,000 to support local children with disabilities, as part of our annual Christmas fundraising initiative.

Our environment

It’s never been more important to do the right thing when it comes to our environment. That’s why we continue to tackle climate change and boost air quality with each new vehicle that enters our fleet. In 2020 we took delivery of one of Europe’s biggest orders of electric buses, which sparked much excitement.

It’s about more than just our environmental responsibility on the road. Our company initiatives have helped cut buildings emissions by 21% and Stagecoach Group has been awarded the Carbon Trust Standard for measuring, managing and reducing our global carbon footprint.

Our buses

With a fleet of 437 buses and coaches serving Newcastle, Sunderland, South Shields, Teesside and Hartlepool, you can see why we’re one of the biggest public transport companies in the region. But did you know that we also have one of the most modern fleets in the UK?

We’re constantly investing in newer, greener buses and, over the past eight years, Stagecoach Group has spent £630 million on regional buses.

Our services

Our mission for every journey is simple: get everyone safely where they need to be, every day.

If you’ve got a journey to take, we’ve got a service to help you make it. Our local buses are ideal for daily travel either for leisure or work.

When it comes to Education, Education, Education, we’ve got that covered, too, with services to schools, and great value travel to colleges and universities. Plus, our Stagecoach Solutions team can arrange travel for events, businesses and rail replacement.

We constantly review our safety procedures and, as we’re all too aware since the unscheduled arrival of Coronavirus, we’re placing even more emphasis on cleaning. We already had a great cleaning schedule in place but we’ve taken it to the next level, focusing on the areas of the bus in which you’re most likely to come into contact.

We’re constantly working hard to increase the quality, reliability and frequency of our bus services to offer car users a realistic transport alternative. Not only will this help with the usual congestion and car parking hassles, but it’ll also help the environment by taking more cars off the road. Over the last year our buses covered over 23.9 million miles and 94.8% of services started on time.

Our tickets and tech

Don’t worry if that’s not your thing, we still accept cash. Plus, our fares are among the lowest of any national UK bus company.

We know there’s no such thing as “one size fits all” so we offer a wide range of tickets so you, our customer, can choose the best value travel for you.

We’ve updated our website and app to make bus travel even easier. Catching the bus today, tomorrow or later? Our Plan your journey feature does exactly what it says on the tin so you can plan the date, time and route of your journey. Not sure where to wait for the bus? Use the website or app to find your nearest bus stop.

We recently added a live map to our Stagecoach Bus App, letting you track where your bus is on the route and check if you’ve got time to grab a coffee before it arrives. Plus, our Busy Bus indicator on the app shows you when it’s the quietest time to travel. Forget time travel...this is travel for the 21st century.

Further commitments to smart ticketing have led to the launch of three new multi-operator smart card products. SmartZone allows travel on buses operated by all three major bus companies in the Tees Valley, South Tyneside, Sunderland, Newcastle and North Tyneside.

Our pioneering project with Tees Valley Combined Authority and Tees Valley Mayor, Ben Houchen, also saw Demand Responsive Transport arrive on Teesside with Tees Flex, our on-demand bus service designed to reconnect isolated rural communities.