Go North East: Service Suggestions v2

Storx

4,583

12 Jun 2022, 8:29 am #2,350

(11 Jun 2022, 11:14 pm)DeltaMan 100% correct. Off peak is mainly shift workers, college students, appointments goers and shoppers during the day. WFHs wouldn't be using the bus between those times as they should be "working". OAPS are simply not returning in the same numbers.

I know we (the royal we) like to think of the North East as this cultural epicentre, but outside of Newcastle & Durham, the night time/leisure economy is truly abysmal. Go to Consett, Jarrow, Ashington, Killingworth, Wallsend, Prudhoe etc after 19:00 and there is literally nothing happening - and those are places with half decent links. I've been to crematoriums with more life. If people don't have a reason to go out, they won't. They can sit in the house and watch Netflix while ordering in an Uber eats! They don't need to travel on public transport to do any of that.

Yeah totally agreed and it's going to get worse with people wanting to stay in. Like I know locally that's not really any leisure and there's no way to make the X7 (Arriva) just to pick a route a leisure route without damaging the 9 - 5's and students.

(11 Jun 2022, 11:18 pm)Andreos1 Which seems crazy when you think it's during this period operators push their services at their most frequent.

But to link ambassador back in. Isn't that what he's saying? There needs to be more beyond the 9-5 and it needs to factor in more than the town centre services we see now and have done since the days of the trams?

I might have misread it but it seemed like he was saying that focusing on the 9 - 5 is a bad idea and instead it should be other areas but to me the 9 - 5 should be priority. It's then what you do around that aswell which needs seriously changes.

Imo they need to get more creative with certain routes. Say the 21 as it's been a route of talk. One idea imo would be to run a board similar to this (times aren't right and are just made up).

21: Leaves Durham 6.20am, arrives Newcastle 7.30am
-- Guaranteed Connection --
X36: Leaves Newcastle 7.45am arrives Cobalt 8.20am
School Bus: 8.40am
Some local service running pensioners to the nearer supermarket or Silverlink
3.20pm - School Bus
3.50pm - Last run back for the local service from Silverlink or wherever taking them home.
4.50pm - X36 Leaves Cobalt
-- Guaranteed Connection --
5.30pm - 21 to Durham
6.40pm - End of Day

It's much better utilisation of that bus imo, there's extra services for the 21 when it's needed, guaranteed connection to Cobalt, the pensioners get to go where they want during dead hours rather than there being too much on the 21 and the school buses are done.

There's plenty areas where it could be done coast road services going to Team Valley in the opposite direction. Buses dropping onto the X66 as there's no need for a 15 minute service at 8am or 6pm and so on.