Go North East partners with Guide Dogs to offer free bus travel to volunteers

We're proud to announce a new partnership with Guide Dogs in Newcastle, offering free bus travel to volunteer puppy raisers who play a vital role in training the next generation of life-changing guide dogs.

These volunteers can now travel for free across the Go North East network by presenting their Guide Dogs ID pass, allowing puppies to practice essential skills on public transport - a crucial step in their development to become fully trained guide dogs.

As part of this initiative, we recently hosted a training session with Guide Dogs Newcastle on one of our electric Voltra buses. The puppies practiced boarding, travelling, and departing in a calm, controlled environment - helping to prepare them for future real-world challenges.

Rebecca Stranney, Puppy Development Advisor at Guide Dogs in Newcastle said: "A huge thank you to Go North East for providing free travel for our volunteers and hosting this training session. “Many guide dog owners rely on public transport and so providing real-world settings like this is invaluable to the puppies' development, helping to prepare them for their future roles as life-changing guide dogs for people with sight loss.

“We know that it can be tempting to approach our lovely dogs, but if you see one in training or working it’s important that they aren’t distracted from their very important job of keeping their owner safe, so please admire them from a distance.”

Ben Maxfield, Business Director at Go North East, added: “We’re proud to support Guide Dogs and their amazing volunteers. By offering free travel, we hope to help prepare guide dogs for the future, and we look forward to welcoming more puppies and volunteers on board."

We're committed to accessibility, with 90% of our buses already featuring next-stop audio announcements to assist visually impaired passengers. We aim to have this technology on our entire fleet by 2026.

This partnership showcases not only the dedication of volunteer puppy raisers but also highlights our ongoing commitment to making public transport accessible - one bus ride at a time.

Guide Dogs are urgently in need of more volunteers to help raise their life-changing dogs in those critical early months. For more information, visit guidedogs.org.uk/volunteer