QuayCity is a bus service 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 ...

, England,which connects the suburbs of

Gosforth Gosforth is an area of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, situated north of the Newcastle City Centre, City Centre. It constituted a separate Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland), urban district of Northumberland from 1895 until 1974 before of ...

Jesmond Jesmond ( ) is a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England, situated north of the city centre and to the east of the Town Moor. Jesmond is considered to be one of the most affluent suburbs of Newcastle upon Tyne, with higher aver ...

Walker Walker or The Walker may refer to: People *Walker (given name) *Walker (surname) *Walker (Brazilian footballer) (born 1982), Brazilian footballer Places In the United States *Walker, Arizona, in Yavapai County *Walker, Mono County, California * ...

and

Wallsend Wallsend () is a town in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England, at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 43,842 and lies east of Newcastle upon Tyne. History Roman Wallsend In Roman times, this was the site of the fort of ...

with the city of

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 ...

Quayside The Quayside is an area along the banks (quay) of the River Tyne in Newcastle upon Tyne (the north bank) and Gateshead (south bank) in Tyne and Wear, North East England, United Kingdom. History The area was once an industrial area and busy c ...

and

Ouseburn The Ouseburn is a small river in Newcastle upon Tyne, England that flows through the city into the River Tyne, England, River Tyne. It gives its name to the Ouseburn Valley and the Ouseburn Ward (country subdivision), electoral ward for Newcas ...

History

The service was introduced on 26 July 2015, following the merger of existing routes Q2 and X40. It operated under the

QuayLink QuayLink was a bus service in Tyne and Wear, England, which connected Gateshead and Newcastle upon Tyne, and later North Tyneside, with the Quayside. Funded by the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive, the service was launched on 22 July ...

name, with diesel single-deck

contactless payment Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC) for making sec ...

s were introduced, as part of a trial. It was later rolled out across the network. On 14 December 2020, the QuayLink branding was dropped and the route was rebranded QuayCity. A new two-tone yellow and black livery was introduced. On 27 March 2022, the route was curtailed beyond St Peter's Basin, with services running between Great Park and St Peter's Basin only. On the same date, the route was also amended to run via

. On 24 July 2022, the service was renumbered QA & QB, reflecting the direction travelled around Great Park. Changes also saw the link between St Peter's Basin and Wallsend via Walker restored. By September 2022, the service reverted to its previous number, Q3. On 1 September 2024, the service was further amended, with the section between Brunton Park and Great Park withdrawn. The route in Brunton Park was also amended, with buses now operating via Warkworth Woods and Polwarth Drive. The direct link between Newcastle and Great Park was replaced by services operated by

Stagecoach North East Stagecoach North East operates both local and regional bus services in County Durham, Cumbria, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear, England. It is a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, which operates bus, coach, rail and tram servi ...

. An hourly service running via Gosforth (49) was introduced, with the existing service (X47) via

Kingston Park Kingston Park is a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne, about north west of the city centre. It is home to several large retailers, the largest being one of Tesco's flagship stores—at 11,055 square metres (119,000 sq ft) which was also t ...

extended up to every 15 minutes.

Route

As of September 2024, service Q3 operates up to every 20 minutes between Brunton Park and Wallsend during the day on weekdays and Saturday, with a half-hourly service between Brunton Park and St Peter’s Basin on Sunday. During peak times, service Q3X additionally operates, running fast via Great North Road.

Fleet and operations

The service is currently operated by a fleet of battery electric

Yutong E12 The Yutong E10, also sold as the longer Yutong E12, is a battery electric single-decker bus manufactured by Yutong in Zhengzhou since 2016 for both Chinese and international bus operators. The Yutong E10 debuted in China in 2016, transporting ...

single-deck vehicles, branded in a mustard and black variant of the silver-based '' Voltra'' livery and carrying over features such as free WiFi, audio-visual next stop announcements and USB charging points specified on previous ''Voltra'' buses. These replaced a fleet of diesel

Optare Versa The Optare Versa is a Low-floor bus, low-floor midibus that was manufactured by Optare at its Sherburn-in-Elmet factory. In total 883 were produced between 2007 and 2018.Euro VI The European emission standards are vehicle emission standards that regulate pollution from the use of new land surface vehicles sold in the European Union and European Economic Area member states and the United Kingdom, and ships in European ...

emissions standard in advance of the launch of Newcastle's

Clean Air Zone A Clean Air Zone (CAZ) is an area in the United Kingdom where targeted action is taken to improve air quality. A CAZ can be non-charging or charging. Whether a vehicle is charged when entering or moving through a CAZ depends on the type of vehi ...

References

External links

* {{commons-inline
Timetable and route map
Bus routes in Tyne and Wear