The Angel 21 is a bus service operated by
Go North East
Go North East is a bus operator running both local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It was previously known as the Northern General Transport Company and Go-Ahead No ...
, which connects
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...
,
Gateshead
Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...
,
Low Fell
Low Fell is a suburb of Gateshead situated in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, England. Built predominantly on sandstone, grindstone and clay, it is bordered by Sheriff Hill/ Deckham to the east, Saltwell/Bensham to the ...
and
Birtley in
Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne.
The county is ...
with
Chester-le-Street
Chester-le-Street () is a market town in County Durham, England. It is located around north of Durham and is close to Newcastle. The town holds markets on Saturdays. In 2021, the town had a population of 23,555.
The town's history is ancient; ...
,
Durham Durham most commonly refers to:
*Durham, England, a cathedral city in north east England
**County Durham, a ceremonial county which includes Durham
*Durham, North Carolina, a city in North Carolina, United States
Durham may also refer to:
Places
...
and
Brandon in
County Durham
County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...
. The service is named after Antony Gormley's ''
Angel of the North
The ''Angel of the North'' is a contemporary sculpture by Antony Gormley, located in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. Completed in 1998, it is seen by an estimated 33 million people every year due to its proximity to the A1 road (Great Bri ...
'', which the route passes.
History
In January 2018, coinciding with 20 years of the ''Angel of the North'', Go North East launched new
Wright StreetDeck
The Wright StreetDeck is an integral double-decker bus manufactured by Wrightbus since 2014, originally delivered as standard with a Daimler OM934 diesel engine. Hybrid-electric, full-electric and hydrogen-powered variants have subsequently be ...
double-deck vehicles on the route – at a cost of £4.5 million.
In May 2019, additional Friday and Saturday evening and Sunday morning journeys were added. Some journeys were cut during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, including all-night services.
An all-night service was restored in September 2020 on Friday and Saturday nights, with a daily 24-hour service being introduced in May 2021. It is currently one of three services (including services
56 and 60) operated by Go North East which run to a daily 24-hour service.
From June 2020, the service was altered to additionally serve Arnison Centre.
In September 2021, the service was extended to additionally serve
Neville's Cross
Neville's Cross is a place in the civil parish of the City of Durham, in County Durham, England. It is also a ward of Durham with a population taken at the 2011 census of 9,940. It is situated on the A167 trunk road to the west of the centre o ...
,
Langley Moor
Langley Moor is an old pit village in County Durham, England. It is located approximately 2 miles south-west of Durham City. Langley Moor is within the civil parish of Brandon and Byshottles which is itself within the City of Durham constituen ...
and
Brandon in County Durham.
Service and operations
The service currently operates up to every 7–10 minutes between Newcastle and Chester-le-Street via Birtley, with services extending to Durham and Brandon half-hourly. It is currently operated by a fleet of Euro 6
Wright StreetDeck
The Wright StreetDeck is an integral double-decker bus manufactured by Wrightbus since 2014, originally delivered as standard with a Daimler OM934 diesel engine. Hybrid-electric, full-electric and hydrogen-powered variants have subsequently be ...
double-deck vehicles, branded in a two-tone green livery, depicting Antony Gormley's ''Angel of the North''.
The service was previously operated by a fleet of Euro 5 hybrid
Volvo B5LH
The Volvo B5LH (initially known as the Volvo B5L Hybrid, also known as the Volvo BRLH) is a low-floor hybrid electric bus chassis for both single-decker buses and double-decker buses manufactured by Volvo since 2008. It is the basis for Vol ...
/
Wright Gemini 2
The Wright Gemini 2 is a double-decker bus built by Wrightbus between 2007 and 2013. It was announced in December 2007 but was not named until 2008. It was constructed as a semi-integral vehicle, with chassis modules provided by VDL. The bodywor ...
, which were introduced in 2012, and branded in a two-tone green livery similar to that of the current.

Prior to this, the service has been operated by a mixture of single-deck
Scania OmniCity
The Scania OmniCity is an integrally constructed Transverse engine, vertically-engined Low-floor bus, low floor city bus that was available from Scania AB, Scania on the European market between 1996 (across Europe)/1997 and 2012.
The OmniCity ...
and double-deck
Volvo B7TL
The Volvo B7TL is a low-floor double-decker bus chassis which was launched in 1999 and replaced the 2-axle version of the Volvo Olympian (its 3-axle version was replaced by the Volvo Super Olympian). It was built as the British bus operator ...
/
Wright Gemini vehicles. These were branded in a pink livery, which also depicted the namesake landmark.
References
External links
*
Go North East website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Angel
Bus routes in Tyne and Wear
Transport in County Durham