North Shields Regeneration Plan
North Shields Regeneration Plan
(04 Sep 2023, 6:31 pm)Storx Cramlington's service if it bothers to run. The station is also in the complete wrong place which Senrug wan't to improve but there's no interest because of the capacity issues elsewhere. Hourly is appalling for the size of the town, the whole of SE Northumberland on the ECML is poor and should be at least hourly from Edinburgh to Newcastle stopping at all stations and half hourly from Morpeth South. Try getting a train from Morpeth to Berwick and you'll see what I'm talking about.
(04 Sep 2023, 6:31 pm)Storx Cramlington's service if it bothers to run. The station is also in the complete wrong place which Senrug wan't to improve but there's no interest because of the capacity issues elsewhere. Hourly is appalling for the size of the town, the whole of SE Northumberland on the ECML is poor and should be at least hourly from Edinburgh to Newcastle stopping at all stations and half hourly from Morpeth South. Try getting a train from Morpeth to Berwick and you'll see what I'm talking about.
(04 Sep 2023, 6:58 pm)mb134 In fairness, does Cramlington need a much better service to Newcastle?
Excluding the X8 which has a different purpose, the express bus services only take 25-30 minutes from the centre to Haymarket. Incuding the X8, on Arriva services alone there are 12 buses per hour on the Cramlington (shops) to Haymarket corridor, increasing to 15 once you include the 37 and 352. The station is out of the way as you say, so for the majority of the town the bus is going to be more attractive regardless.
I'm sure I've seen before that capacity on the ECML isn't really there to have half hourly stoppers between Morpeth and Newcastle either (at least if they are also stopping all stations from Edinburgh too), though admittedly I don't know enough to know if that's still accurate?
(04 Sep 2023, 6:58 pm)mb134 In fairness, does Cramlington need a much better service to Newcastle?
Excluding the X8 which has a different purpose, the express bus services only take 25-30 minutes from the centre to Haymarket. Incuding the X8, on Arriva services alone there are 12 buses per hour on the Cramlington (shops) to Haymarket corridor, increasing to 15 once you include the 37 and 352. The station is out of the way as you say, so for the majority of the town the bus is going to be more attractive regardless.
I'm sure I've seen before that capacity on the ECML isn't really there to have half hourly stoppers between Morpeth and Newcastle either (at least if they are also stopping all stations from Edinburgh too), though admittedly I don't know enough to know if that's still accurate?
(04 Sep 2023, 7:22 pm)Storx Guess it depends who you're going for. It's much easier to attract someone to use a train who currently uses a car vs a bus which goes the exact same way as you do and sits in the same traffic. Admit the X9/X10/X11 aren't the worst for reliability but when things go wrong they don't half go wrong.
Yeah do believe there is capacity problems, I believe SENRUG are trying to use the free paths to the alternative Lumo services to extend one of the TPE services through running Cramlington, Morpeth, Widdrington, Alnmouth, Berwick, Reston, Dunbar, Edinburgh. I believe there's interest from Scotrail for similar aswell since Reston is pretty much unserved atm with Berwick shorts filling the gaps.
I know they wanted to move the station South to where the bridge crossing the lines opposite Manor Walks aswell and build a bus station, don't get me started as it's the complete wrong place for a bus station, but moving the station would be a good move imo, it's a bit out in a limb atm. It would be a good place for some Intercity services to serve SE Northumberland, especially Blyth, Cramlington, Dudley etc. I know I'd use it if it was cheap enough heading North rather than doubling back via Newcastle.
(04 Sep 2023, 7:22 pm)Storx Guess it depends who you're going for. It's much easier to attract someone to use a train who currently uses a car vs a bus which goes the exact same way as you do and sits in the same traffic. Admit the X9/X10/X11 aren't the worst for reliability but when things go wrong they don't half go wrong.
Yeah do believe there is capacity problems, I believe SENRUG are trying to use the free paths to the alternative Lumo services to extend one of the TPE services through running Cramlington, Morpeth, Widdrington, Alnmouth, Berwick, Reston, Dunbar, Edinburgh. I believe there's interest from Scotrail for similar aswell since Reston is pretty much unserved atm with Berwick shorts filling the gaps.
I know they wanted to move the station South to where the bridge crossing the lines opposite Manor Walks aswell and build a bus station, don't get me started as it's the complete wrong place for a bus station, but moving the station would be a good move imo, it's a bit out in a limb atm. It would be a good place for some Intercity services to serve SE Northumberland, especially Blyth, Cramlington, Dudley etc. I know I'd use it if it was cheap enough heading North rather than doubling back via Newcastle.
(04 Sep 2023, 11:13 pm)solsburian With all of the house building in Killingworth, there is probably a good argument that could be made for a station to be re-instated there (and possibly Dudley too). Looking at the alignments, it odes seem like there was room for additional 3rd and 4th tracks on the ECML in the area, which might work as passing loops now, plus replacing the increasing elderly Sprinters with their pedestrian acceleration with Electric multiple units would help too.
(04 Sep 2023, 11:13 pm)solsburian With all of the house building in Killingworth, there is probably a good argument that could be made for a station to be re-instated there (and possibly Dudley too). Looking at the alignments, it odes seem like there was room for additional 3rd and 4th tracks on the ECML in the area, which might work as passing loops now, plus replacing the increasing elderly Sprinters with their pedestrian acceleration with Electric multiple units would help too.
(03 Sep 2023, 10:10 pm)Storx Bridges shuts earlier, it's quite a detour through some pretty unpleasant areas in an evening when arguably you want to be there.
Leeds is a really bad example btw, quite a lot of buses don't serve the thing at all and do the Leeds loop instead. Leeds is actually one of the better examples of buses serving more areas. The only buses which serve the bus station mainly come from the West, so already serve the city on the way. Not to mention there's quite a lot of cross city links.
https://bustimes.org/services/163-castleford-leeds#map - See the 163 for an example.
https://bustimes.org/services/x98-sky-cl...eeds-2#map - or X98 from Wetherby.
Like, if stuff like the E1/E2/E6/56 served the bus station there that's fair play as they already serve the city but stuff like the 60 etc would be better doing a loop still imo. Maybe serving a stop nearby so people can still change there if needed, it's the best of both worlds like Leeds.
(03 Sep 2023, 10:10 pm)Storx Bridges shuts earlier, it's quite a detour through some pretty unpleasant areas in an evening when arguably you want to be there.
Leeds is a really bad example btw, quite a lot of buses don't serve the thing at all and do the Leeds loop instead. Leeds is actually one of the better examples of buses serving more areas. The only buses which serve the bus station mainly come from the West, so already serve the city on the way. Not to mention there's quite a lot of cross city links.
https://bustimes.org/services/163-castleford-leeds#map - See the 163 for an example.
https://bustimes.org/services/x98-sky-cl...eeds-2#map - or X98 from Wetherby.
Like, if stuff like the E1/E2/E6/56 served the bus station there that's fair play as they already serve the city but stuff like the 60 etc would be better doing a loop still imo. Maybe serving a stop nearby so people can still change there if needed, it's the best of both worlds like Leeds.
(09 Sep 2023, 9:52 am)Drifter60 See I don’t know, I actually avoid the 61 when travelling from the Top of Seaham into Sunderland, something I used to do for a few years in two previous jobs, because of the city centre loop, it took too long to get to the interchange. I was connecting to the metro in one case and another bus in the other, so I always opted for the 60,22,23 because they felt much more direct. When the 61 became the 9 it was better because it at least when to the interchange first, most got off there though in my experience. Not many travelled through to alight at Fawcett Street, anyone still on the bus went beyond the city centre.
People go on about buses being ‘white elephants’, ‘not in the right places etc’ but there still very well used, if they weren’t Go North East wouldn’t send the vast majority of buses into the interchange. I always preferred a bus station because you knew exactly what stand to wait at and buses pulled in, rather than busy City Centre stops where there’s loads of buses passing.
(09 Sep 2023, 9:52 am)Drifter60 See I don’t know, I actually avoid the 61 when travelling from the Top of Seaham into Sunderland, something I used to do for a few years in two previous jobs, because of the city centre loop, it took too long to get to the interchange. I was connecting to the metro in one case and another bus in the other, so I always opted for the 60,22,23 because they felt much more direct. When the 61 became the 9 it was better because it at least when to the interchange first, most got off there though in my experience. Not many travelled through to alight at Fawcett Street, anyone still on the bus went beyond the city centre.
People go on about buses being ‘white elephants’, ‘not in the right places etc’ but there still very well used, if they weren’t Go North East wouldn’t send the vast majority of buses into the interchange. I always preferred a bus station because you knew exactly what stand to wait at and buses pulled in, rather than busy City Centre stops where there’s loads of buses passing.
(05 Sep 2023, 7:46 am)Storx Aye totally agreed if you could get it to work, could be scope for round Wiltshire Drive aswell then we might not hear about buses along these, tounge in cheek, but there's probably demand for a train station around there.
It won't happen tho as rail around here is alien.
(05 Sep 2023, 7:46 am)Storx Aye totally agreed if you could get it to work, could be scope for round Wiltshire Drive aswell then we might not hear about buses along these, tounge in cheek, but there's probably demand for a train station around there.
It won't happen tho as rail around here is alien.
North Shields Hub is remarkably spacious for how few people seemed to be using it, at least during the day on Tuesday 26th.
By comparison, Eldon Square Bus Station was rammed whenever I passed through. I guess we should be grateful that it is not as dark and dingy as its predecessor.
