(26 Mar 2024, 9:28 pm)L469 YVK wrote Rather than throwing money at all these secured Micky Mouse services, some of which only turn up once an hour and are off no use unless dependant.......is better bus / metro integration with local and major routes not the way forward? Seamless ticketing and guaranteed connections. Obviously would never work under the existing private / secured service model.....but bigger picture needs looked at.

Fine example.....308 / 309 in North Tyneside.......passengers ride through to Northumberland Park instead and straight onto Metro....route lengths cut down, more connections and useful links created rather than just another bus along the Coast Road to Newcastle running late as **** some days and sitting in all that traffic. Not saying to scrap them by any means yeah? But just a prime example

Going to reply to you here as it's not really relevant to where you posted it.

Yep, pretty much and it's how it would work in pretty much every country in the world (bar the UK). You'd badly need to get the Metro to Cobalt first though and then build a hub near Silverlink though, Northumberland Park would be a bit of a detour for the Coast Road services, the 351/354/359 should all hub into Northumberland Park though with frequent services (not hourly) and similar for North Shields, 1/306/317.

I'd argue the 22 should extend to Northumberland Park asap aswell to give Northumberland Line South links aswell, and a decent link from Northumberland Park to Killingworth, again for hub links and treat it as a proper hub for services, even if it is bus-bus changes.