Go North East, the founding company of the Go-Ahead Group, operates bus services in Tyne and Wear and County Durham in England. It also operates a small number of services in Northumberland and the Tees Valley. Go North East operates through its three subsidiaries; Go Gateshead Ltd., Go Northern Ltd. and Go Wear Buses Ltd. However buses generally wear Go North East fleetnames. The company was previously known as The Northern General Transport Company and Go-Ahead Northern. The company operates a modern fleet of around 700 buses, 95% that are in regular service are low floor. The first serious trial of low floor buses in the UK outside of London was operated from the Percy Main Depot in North Tyneside.
Go North East's headquarters are at 117 Queen Street, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear and their central engineering department is at Site 11, Saltmeadows Road, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear.

Subsidiaries
Operates services in and around Gateshead and into Newcastle. Go Gateshead also operates the X10 Express service between Newcastle and Middlesbrough and the highly acclaimed X66 Centrelink bendy bus service between Gateshead Interchange and the MetroCentre transport interchange. As part of the Centrelink project part of the X66's route is now a bus only road that runs alongside the River Tyne. This subsidiary also operates services on North Tyneside out of the former Go Coastline Ltd. depot at Percy Main. Services that run into Gateshead from South Tyneside that were formerly operated from the now defunct Go Coastline Ltd. South Shields depot are now undertaken by the Sunderland Road depot.
Depots are located at:

Sunderland Road, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear - 'Sunderland Road'
Rothbury Terrace, Percy Main, Tyne and Wear - 'Percy Main' (formerly Go Coastline)
Cromwell Place, Winlaton, Tyne and Wear - 'Winlaton' Go Gateshead Ltd.
Operates mainly in County Durham. Operates some services into Tyne and Wear and Teesside.
Depots are located at:
In March 2006, Go North East announced it was withdrawing from Bishop Auckland with the exception of 3 flagship routes, mainly those linking to Durham and Newcastle, which were transferred to the Chester-le-Street depot (the former 723,724 and X72 services now under the Service 21 banner) The bulk of operations were transferred to Arriva Bishop Auckland.
Construction is ongoing on the Drum Lane Industrial Estate (between Barley Mow, Ouston and Chester Le Street) of a central Go Northern depot which will replace the Chester Le Street and Stanley depots when completed
On the 1st October 2006, Go North East introduced the first bus service in the North East scheduled to run 24 hours a day, the 21/N21 between Newcastle and Chester-le-Street. From 4th August 2007 the N21 will extend from Chester-le-Street to Durham via Plawsworth and Framwellgate Moor where a connection will be provided by the new night bus service N20 to Gilesgate Moor, Belmont and Carville.

Picktree Lane, Chester-le-Street, County Durham - 'Chester-le-Street'
High Street, Stanley, County Durham - 'Stanley' Go Northern Ltd.
Runs services local thorough Sunderland. Also operates some of the former Go Coastline services on South Tyneside. Wear Buses also operates services into County Durham, Northumberland and the rest of Tyne and Wear. From June 2, 2007, Go Wear Buses will operate a weekend night bus service on route Fab56 (numbered N56) and from August 4 2007 a weekend night service will also operate on the Prinice Bishops service (numbered N20), however this service will operate only in Durham City Centre from North Road to Gilesgate Moor, Belmont and Carville.
Deptford are operating services on contract to Durham County Council that were formally operated by Jayline Travel. The routes are operated by some former Jayline Optare Solos witch retain Jayline livery but with 'Go North East Jayline' fleetnames applied as well as native Go North East vehicles. It is expected all buses used on the route will gain 'Go North East Jayline' livery.
Depots are located at:

Deptford Terrace, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear - 'Deptford'
Industrial Road, Hertburn Industrial Estate, Washington, Tyne and Wear - 'Washington' Go Wear Buses Ltd.
Recently acquired local operator based in Ashington. Northumbria operates mainly in Northumberland and northern Newcastle, with services operating into the City Centre.
Depots are located at:

Jubilee Industrial Estate, Ashington, Northumberland Northumbria Coaches Ltd.

The Venture Transport Company
Stanley Buses
The Langley Park Motor Company
Tyne & Wear Omnibus Company Limited (Immediately sold to Busways)
Carryden Limited (Local bus services only)
Low Fell Coaches
Atkinsons
Shaws Coaches
Star Travel (Local bus services only)
JH Hammell (Diamond)
OK Motor Services
Derwent Coaches (Local bus services only)
Armstrongs of Ebchester Bus companies acquired by Go North East

Strothers Road, High Spen, Tyne & Wear
Jarrow Bus Staion, Jarrow, Tyne & Wear (Merged with South Shields)
Park Lane, Sunderland, Tyne & Wear (Replaced by Deptford)
Lady's Walk, South Shields, Tyne & Wear (Merged with Deptford)
Bondgate, Bishop Auckland, County Durham Former depots
Go North East operate a number of night bus services (with an 'N' prefix) throughout the region. The N21 was its first initial trial with plans to roll the service out to more areas if it proved successful. The N56 was introduced on 2 June 2007.
From 4 August 2007, 2 more night bus services will operate - the N20 and the N97.

N20 Durham to Gilesgate Moor, Belmont and Carrville
N21 Newcastle, Gateshead, Birtley, Chester-le-Street, Plawsworth and Durham.
N56 Sunderland, Southwick Green, Hylton Castle, Washington Galleries, Concord, Springwell, Wrekenton, Gateshead and Newcastle
N97 Newcastle, Gateshead, Bensham, Lobley Hill, Dunston Hill, Whickham, Fellside Park and Dunston. Metrocentre Flyer
During 2006 Go North East began applying bright eye catching liveries to its vehicles. This is apparently an attempt to increase passenger numbers by increasing awareness of its services. All buses still carry Go North East fleetnames in addition to these new 'brandings' as well as either Go Gateshead, Go Northern or Go Wear Buses legal lettering. The list below shows the services that have been branded so far:
Services highlighted in red do not use accessible vehicles.
During restructuring of the service network Go North East has withdrawn a number of their branded services, these are listed below.
Each branded service has its own logo and livery. The gallery below shows most of these logos and colour schemes.

Route branding
Below is a list of vehicles Go North East bought 'as standard'. Anybody interested in a complete fleet list can visit the Fleet Info section of the Go North East Website.

Current

Low floor double deck

• Dennis Trident 2/East Lancs Lolyne
  Dennis Trident 2/Plaxton President
  Low floor single deck
  
  
  
  • Scania L94UB/Wright Solar
    Dennis Dart SPD/Plaxton
    Volvo B10BLE/Wright Renown
    DAF SB220GS/Plaxton Prestige
    Optare Excel
    Dennis Lance SLF/Wright Pathfinder
    Low floor minibus
    
    
    
    • Optare Solo
      Double deck
      
      
      
      • Volvo Olympian/Northern Counties Palatine II
        Leyland Olympian/Alexander RH
        MCW Metrobus
        Midibus
        
        
        
        • Dennis Dart/Marshall C37
          Dennis Dart/Wright Handybus
          Dennis Dart/Carlyle Dartline
          Minibus
          
          
          
          • Optare Metrorider