Northern General Transport Company

Northern General Transport Company

Preserved AEC Routemaster in December 2011
Parent	National Bus Company
Founded	1913
Ceased operation	February 1987
Headquarters	Gateshead
Service area	County Durham Northumberland Tyne & Wear
Service type	Bus operator
Fleet	730 (February 1987)

The Northern General Transport Company was a bus company in North East England.

It originated in the early 1900s when Gateshead and District Tramways asked Parliament's permission to extend their Tramway, which finished at Low Fell, to Chester-le-Street. Parliament denied this, so the directors decided to set up a motor bus operation instead. Hence the Northern General Transport Company was formed and its first depot was built at Picktree Lane, Chester-le-Street in 1913. Gateshead Tramways was a subsidiary of British Electric Traction.

The first motor bus service was from Chester-le-Street to Low Fell, via Birtley where there was a connection to the Gateshead trams; the service, however, was quickly extended to Gateshead and within a few years crossed the River Tyne to finish in Newcastle.

Other motor bus routes quickly developed from Chester-le-Street, its central location being ideal for other towns and colliery villages nearby. Northern even built the bus station in Durham (as a terminus) before Tilling's United Automobile Services arrived there. After World War I, services really got going. In Newcastle two bus stations were opened, Marlborough Crescent and Worswick Street. Depots were built in Stanley and Gateshead which was to become the workshops and in 1933 the head office.

Throughout the 1930s smaller independents were bought out and British Electric Tracton in the North East began to convert to motor bus operation, expanding into Sunderland and North Tyneside taking over the declining tramway routes and expanding the bus routes further. By now Northern even built their own buses to accommodate the high passenger numbers with the very low bridges in the area (meaning three-axle single deckers). There were by now excursion services, parcel deliveries and long distance services to other cities including London Victoria Coach Station.