The tall ships visited Hartelpool on 7th to 10th August 2010 and to cope with the huge number of sightseers who are visiting the town to see the ships, a number of public transport provisions were made. In addition to duplicates and double-decking on several local bus routes, a large park and ride facility was put in place and special trains laid on.

TRAINS
Loco-hauled extras operated between Darlington and Sunderland via Hartlepool topped and tailed by Direct Rail Services class 47 and 57 locomotives (one of each per rake of coaches). Northern ran their normal Newcastle - Middlesbrough service with pairs of units and Grand Central operated evening extras between Hartlepool and York. In all cases, observed loadings were good.

PARK & RIDE
Three park and ride sites were established, one near Hart Village, one at the Corus works and one near Greatham. The whole service was awarded on tender to (Arriva-owned) TGM/Classic, though most of it was sub-contracted to other operators.

The Hart service was operated by Arriva North East, using all five of their ex Go North East Leyland Olympians, several Volvo Olympians and some Scania N113s.

The Greatham service was mainly operated using a selection of Arriva Midlands Volvo Olympians, though also featuring a number of vehicles from Arriva Yorkshire (Volvo Olympians and an Alexander Dennis Enviro 400), Arriva Scotland West (Scania N113s) and Garnetts of Tindale Crescent, Bishop Auckland.

Garnetts, however, were the most numerous operator on the Corus service, using mainly Leyland Titans, supplemented by a couple of Olympians, two Tridnets and a coach. This route also saw vehicles from Arriva Scotland West (as above) Weardale of Stanhope (four Olympians and a Dennis Trident), Redfern of Mansfield (four Olympians, all with some north east history!), Procters of Bedale (one coach) and Stanley Travel (two Volvo Olympians), plus Classic themselves (two Volvo Olympians, one Leyland Olympian and some coaches). Again, loadings were good.

The vehicles on these services created much enthusiast interest, as opportunities to see so many Leyland Olympians (16) and Titans (10) operating in one place are virtually non-existant.