Pricing
Pricing
(06 Nov 2014, 6:58 pm)AdamY First of all, I have absolutely no problem in changing buses providing doing so gets me to my destination quicker than the bus that goes around the world. In my pre-motoring days (when I used have a bus-pass), there have been plenty of occasions where I've switched buses at Metrocentre (usually on to Stagecoach's 100 service) in an attempt to get into Newcastle a little bit quicker. Likewise, when Rowlands Gill had direct services which ran to Gateshead. The hub and spoke model works when one wishes to travel to destinations placed near to the centre of the hub, or, when one lives near to the centre of the hub and wishes to travel to destinations placed further up the spoke.
However, and this is one critique of the model, what if one wishes to travel between locations placed near to the top of two different spokes? For this, I'll use my example between Rowlands Gill and Stanley but a similar example could be used for, say, Ryhope/Silksworth and Herrington Burn/Houghton-le-Spring. The afore mentioned locations all used to have direct buses but have saw revisions which mean passengers are forced to change buses. In my example, the journey between Rowlands Gill and Stanley used to take approx 30 mins using the direct bus. Now, it takes somewhere in the region of 60-90 minutes taking into account waiting times etc.
Moving onto the 69 example, if this direct bus did not exist, journey times between Whickham and Winlaton would increase if people were forced to change at the nearest hub, Metrocentre.
Valid arguments can always be made over the streamlining of services especially if the service in question receives poor patronage. However, there will be always someone, somewhere, who'll be disadvantaged if this service is withdrawn.
(06 Nov 2014, 6:58 pm)AdamY First of all, I have absolutely no problem in changing buses providing doing so gets me to my destination quicker than the bus that goes around the world. In my pre-motoring days (when I used have a bus-pass), there have been plenty of occasions where I've switched buses at Metrocentre (usually on to Stagecoach's 100 service) in an attempt to get into Newcastle a little bit quicker. Likewise, when Rowlands Gill had direct services which ran to Gateshead. The hub and spoke model works when one wishes to travel to destinations placed near to the centre of the hub, or, when one lives near to the centre of the hub and wishes to travel to destinations placed further up the spoke.
However, and this is one critique of the model, what if one wishes to travel between locations placed near to the top of two different spokes? For this, I'll use my example between Rowlands Gill and Stanley but a similar example could be used for, say, Ryhope/Silksworth and Herrington Burn/Houghton-le-Spring. The afore mentioned locations all used to have direct buses but have saw revisions which mean passengers are forced to change buses. In my example, the journey between Rowlands Gill and Stanley used to take approx 30 mins using the direct bus. Now, it takes somewhere in the region of 60-90 minutes taking into account waiting times etc.
Moving onto the 69 example, if this direct bus did not exist, journey times between Whickham and Winlaton would increase if people were forced to change at the nearest hub, Metrocentre.
Valid arguments can always be made over the streamlining of services especially if the service in question receives poor patronage. However, there will be always someone, somewhere, who'll be disadvantaged if this service is withdrawn.
