Route Development | Network Expansion & New Services

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Dan

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29 Dec 2021, 5:50 pm #15

(29 Dec 2021, 4:40 pm)Andreos1 It's interesting to see that the extension of an existing route (replacing one in the case of the 18/X21 or reinstating part of a historic route in the case of the 21/X46) is viewed as a new route.
They're positives. But not sure they're a new route.

I can see why an operator would look to do something on the cheap by adding a vehicle or two to the PVR and extending a route to open up new connections - rather than creating a new route in its entirity, but is that part of the issue and why we've seen a steady decline in the almost 40 years since de-reg?

It's almost like a mantra of introducing something as cost effective as possible, is the only answer or option and that the entrepreneureal ideology of speculating to accumulating, has gone out of the window. Because 'it's easier'.

We used to see the patter about 'experimental service being withdrawn' and whilst it was always a shame to see a route withdrawn after a quite insignificant period of time, at least the routes were introduced and given a try.

The original point of discussion was regarding Go North East 'exploiting other changes to travel pattern demands etc and potentially capitalising', and your comment was that 'don't think the powers that be at GNE towers think that such things exist beyond a couple of once a day services to Whitby or Belsay.'

You added that you 'can't think of the last regular service they introduced' but all those services in my original post have been introduced. To the users of these services, they're new services.

To the people in Brandon, Meadowfield and Langley Moor, they have a new bus route which takes them directly to New College Durham and the Arnison Centre. Yes, that bus route may have existed in the late 80s in another format, but it hasn't for a very long time (I assume you're not referring to the most recent incarnation of the X46 which was basically the bus running in service between Crook and Durham rather than out of service). In some respects it's disappointing that you don't view them as such, but I'm glad you see them as positives.

The 21 is a prime example of a service being extended and diverted to offer a vast number of new connections to places previously not served - exactly what you have alluded that operators should be doing. It's comparable in some respects to your suggestion of the Stagecoach 'E' services being extended beyond Sunderland City Centre to the Royal Hospital, but the difference between that and the 21 is that Brandon - Durham was not a corridor served by Go North East previously, so isn't duplicating something that the company already offers in the 'hub and spoke' model. It will be interesting how Go North East, Arriva and Durham County Council view this corridor from April 2022, and whether they view the more established service as being the route to stick with, see the benefits of the new route and the cross-city connections it offers, or would prefer a blend of both.