(07 Sep 2023, 10:05 am)Adrian wrote IMO this is one of the biggest issues, and not unique to Quorum, but buses generally don't serve business parks. Despite them being typically the largest density of workers in one place. 

Look how long it took Follingsby to get a proper bus service, for example, or that the IAMP and Turbine don't have a bus service. Further afield, integra61 in Bowburn, there's a 20 minute walk from the Amazon site to the nearest bus stop.

In the case of the North Tyne Rockets not serving Quorum, I think it's interesting that this 'deal' has been announced after the service launch. I appreciate that things don't always happen in the order you'd perhaps prefer, but hopefully a service revision in the near future would see them diverted in? Not knowing the traffic around that park, is that even feasible? 

The other thing, and really this is more for Nexus, but our bus stop infrastructure is really poor. With the Quorum example, you've potentially got folk with a 10 minute walk down from Q12, in heavy rain, all trying to hunch up in a tiny and open front bus shelter. If you had access to a car, and that was your experience, you'd never bother again.

My brother works at Amazon at Bowburn and he has to get a lift in as it's nigh on impossible to get there by bus in time for his shift.
Getting back is fine, as long as you don't mind the 20 minute walks and half hour waits for connections.

As I've said before, when he started there was a direct bus from Durham to Amazon, but that was binned off presumably due to lack of funding from Amazon?

How long would the diversion into Amazon really take? And you cant say it's due to lack of space because they built a dedicated bloody bus station there!

(07 Sep 2023, 10:21 am)streetdeckfan wrote My brother works at Amazon at Bowburn and he has to get a lift in as it's nigh on impossible to get there by bus in time for his shift.
Getting back is fine, as long as you don't mind the 20 minute walks and half hour waits for connections.

As I've said before, when he started there was a direct bus from Durham to Amazon, but that was binned off presumably due to lack of funding from Amazon?

How long would the diversion into Amazon really take? And you cant say it's due to lack of space because they built a dedicated bloody bus station there!

I know that the local Councillors at the time, not only worked with the developer and Amazon to ensure there was bus infrastructure in place, but also with Arriva in attempt to get buses to serve integra61. 

From what I understand, Arriva would not play ball at all, refusing to divert anything from the main road. So you now have the crazy situation of a site layout with buses in mind, several bus stops and shelters, but no buses...

(07 Sep 2023, 11:02 am)Adrian wrote I know that the local Councillors at the time, not only worked with the developer and Amazon to ensure there was bus infrastructure in place, but also with Arriva in attempt to get buses to serve integra61. 

From what I understand, Arriva would not play ball at all, refusing to divert anything from the main road. So you now have the crazy situation of a site layout with buses in mind, several bus stops and shelters, but no buses...

Don't the council fund the routes that go past? Couldn't they have added it to the tender?

(07 Sep 2023, 11:12 am)streetdeckfan wrote Don't the council fund the routes that go past? Couldn't they have added it to the tender?

This is going back to around 2018, at a time that I believe everything (bar the 58) was commercial.

I've long since moved, so not really following what the situation is nowadays.

Didn't Dan post on twitter that he had a meeting at Bowburn Amazon but this was ages ago and nothing came from it

(07 Sep 2023, 11:21 am)Adrian wrote This is going back to around 2018, at a time that I believe everything (bar the 58) was commercial.

I've long since moved, so not really following what the situation is nowadays.

What was the crack around Stagecoach taking over the 59, was it due to Arriva not making enough money on it?

It would have been a relatively simple job diverting it down to Amazon and I reckon they could have made an absolute killing judging by the amount of cars that clog up the area at shift change!

Youve got Spectrum Business park in Seaham only served by the X6, why not send the 60 or maybe a 65 every hour or something around it.

(07 Sep 2023, 11:28 am)streetdeckfan wrote What was the crack around Stagecoach taking over the 59, was it due to Arriva not making enough money on it?

It would have been a relatively simple job diverting it down to Amazon and I reckon they could have made an absolute killing judging by the amount of cars that clog up the area at shift change!

It would need an extra bus added (or a route change somewhere else down the line to reduce running times) which DCC are probably unwilling to fund.

(07 Sep 2023, 10:05 am)Adrian wrote IMO this is one of the biggest issues, and not unique to Quorum, but buses generally don't serve business parks. Despite them being typically the largest density of workers in one place. 

Look how long it took Follingsby to get a proper bus service, for example, or that the IAMP and Turbine don't have a bus service. Further afield, integra61 in Bowburn, there's a 20 minute walk from the Amazon site to the nearest bus stop.

In the case of the North Tyne Rockets not serving Quorum, I think it's interesting that this 'deal' has been announced after the service launch. I appreciate that things don't always happen in the order you'd perhaps prefer, but hopefully a service revision in the near future would see them diverted in? Not knowing the traffic around that park, is that even feasible? 

The other thing, and really this is more for Nexus, but our bus stop infrastructure is really poor. With the Quorum example, you've potentially got folk with a 10 minute walk down from Q12, in heavy rain, all trying to hunch up in a tiny and open front bus shelter. If you had access to a car, and that was your experience, you'd never bother again.

I partly disagree on this, it is a bit of a walk from Turbine, but IAMP literally backs onto Washington Road with paths connecting straight to the bus stops there. A lot of passengers use them on the 56 and 50, although maybe they should be redirected down Cherry Blossom Way and back up Infiniti Drive to help those out in on the other side of Nissan, but it doesn't seem to stop them at the minute.

Re North Tyneside Rockets

In contrast the running times are pretty fair... and will be accurate in the medium term imo

This week has been particularly heavy traffic in North Tyneside/Killingworth especially

I drive to work and I make no apologies for this.. but this week a 15min 4mile journey has been taking 40minutes plus....

There is an increase on traffic on the roads in the area (I also drive work vans off peak time in the area) and congestion has been noticeable.

Only last week one of the days had a severe morning disruption with a hit and run in Forest Hall which disrupted services in general as I even had to do a diversion.

Timings is pretty fair if they were standalone routes however as they interwork that is the problem to give knock on delays.

The only solution to make them standalone routes is possibly to increase areas into timetables to make it say an hourly service etc...

Someone made reference to it being a waste of time going round Quorum and adding an extra 5 minutes...

I think that is positive as anyone who potentially has a job interview and use the route will go oh I know where that is because of bus.

With reference to adding an extra 5 minutes... (4min is allocated to go round Wiltshire Drive (that's a different debate)

I'm in favour of buses actually entering retail parks imagine say the 19 bus going down silverlink then turning left (at mcd) and drive into the retail park and then out the other end and through Tyne Tunnel bus only lane or even buses driving in Byker into the retail park and stopping at the bus stop that no buses use.

With North Tyne Rockets stopping outside the doors of Benton Asda perhaps will assist the elderly

This is just examples on improving services bus services should be competing against Taxi users as well as cars

What I do think would be beneficial (Dan) is that North Tyneside Rocket service is that an advert is placed on buses perhaps as traffic is bad apologising for delays but this is due to a number of factors with temporary lights schools etc..

And the A19

The A19 is down to one lane as a consequence cars are avoiding the A19 and using alternative routes

Driving to work used to be 15mins now its 30-40mins (bus sadly is 1hr 40 mins however most of my other journeys I do use bus as its cheaper it is just getting to work I use the car

The A19 has reccently changed the roadworks from Southbound to NorthBound so it is one lane as a consequence cars are using main roads as an alternative away from the A19


Roadworks should be complete well Nov 2023 on the A19 so it should eliminate some delays as most Rockets pass over the A19 to an extent

With the rockets 335/351/352/353/354/355/359 running for a week now are loading quite good?

Has the 701 route changed? I've noticed it turning right immediately after the bridge rather than going up to Roker Avenue.

If so, why? Seems strange to me as there's often students using that stop,presumably cos it serves the retail park and there's probably student flats nearby.

(11 Sep 2023, 8:26 pm)F114TML wrote Has the 701 route changed? I've noticed it turning right immediately after the bridge rather than going up to Roker Avenue.

If so, why? Seems strange to me as there's often students using that stop,presumably cos it serves the retail park and there's probably student flats nearby.

Isn't it to serve St Peter's (campus and the church) more directly?

(11 Sep 2023, 8:35 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote Isn't it to serve St Peter's (campus and the church) more directly?

700 now only operates Park Lane to St Peter's via stadium of light. and no longer operates to Royal Hospital and  701  operates from St Peter's to Clanny House but no longer serves the university hub and operates direct up Chester Rd.

(11 Sep 2023, 8:26 pm)F114TML wrote Has the 701 route changed? I've noticed it turning right immediately after the bridge rather than going up to Roker Avenue.

If so, why? Seems strange to me as there's often students using that stop,presumably cos it serves the retail park and there's probably student flats nearby.

Speaking of the 701, I notice the PDF timetable lists St Peter’s Metro as a boarding/alighting point but there actually no bus stop (at least in the direction of the St Peter’s campus) to get off/on at.

Also the 700 was operated by a Prince Bishops Streetlite today, and 727/728 were on the South Tyneside Circuit and the 2/2A.

Is the 39/39A/39B doing okay since the 39 and 33 started interworking. The 0911 ex Galleries was a no-show, didn't say it was cancelled on the website.

(11 Sep 2023, 9:29 pm)Unber43 wrote Also the 700 was operated by a Prince Bishops Streetlite today, and 727/728 were on the South Tyneside Circuit and the 2/2A.

726/727/728 are going to Percy Main eventually after repaint

surely they need more than 3 for the rockets

Noticed sue to roadworks on new York roads the 309, 353 & 354 are all skipping new York after 18.00 (and the 359 is skipping Murton after 18.00) and was wondering since said routes all Change drivers in new York where they're changing drivers on an evening

They will probably have found a suitable location nearby to change drivers.

The North Tyneside Rocket brand isn't going to work if they keep hiding the buses (or are the rockets disappearing into black holes). Everytime I've went to photo or even seen a NT Rocket route today (not using the bus times tracker and going old school), it was mainly a standard roadstripe livered Streetlite, and in one case one of the workings was a Cobalt and Coast Gemini. I only managed to photo only one NT rocket today, and I'm sure yesterday there was at least 2 on the Coaster as I saw 2 pass my shop within a short timespan (not long enough for it to reach either Whitley Bay or Metrocentre and come back to Wallsend). If they want the brand to work, then the brand needs to be seen.

(14 Sep 2023, 5:03 pm)Rapidsnap wrote The North Tyneside Rocket brand isn't going to work if they keep hiding the buses (or are the rockets disappearing into black holes). Everytime I've went to photo or even seen a NT Rocket route today (not using the bus times tracker and going old school), it was mainly a standard roadstripe livered Streetlite, and in one case one of the workings was a Cobalt and Coast Gemini. I only managed to photo only one NT rocket today, and I'm sure yesterday there was at least 2 on the Coaster as I saw 2 pass my shop within a short timespan (not long enough for it to reach either Whitley Bay or Metrocentre and come back to Wallsend). If they want the brand to work, then the brand needs to be seen.

North Tyne Rockets “brand” was just a cheap solution to save them painting the Orbits into Corporate. 
We knew the Coasters, North Tyne Rockets and Cobalt & Coasts wouldn’t/couldn’t be kept to their own routes. They’re no different to any of the other “brands” throughout GNE.

(12 Sep 2023, 2:50 pm)Retro Nero wrote 726/727/728 are going to Percy Main eventually after repaint

They are still needed at Sunderland - the 700 will still be one of these in Connect livery, with the other two being used on other services from Sunderland.

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(11 Sep 2023, 8:26 pm)F114TML wrote Has the 701 route changed? I've noticed it turning right immediately after the bridge rather than going up to Roker Avenue.

If so, why? Seems strange to me as there's often students using that stop,presumably cos it serves the retail park and there's probably student flats nearby.

I'm sure that Nexus knew what they were doing when they decided to change the route.

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(11 Sep 2023, 8:26 pm)F114TML wrote Has the 701 route changed? I've noticed it turning right immediately after the bridge rather than going up to Roker Avenue.

If so, why? Seems strange to me as there's often students using that stop,presumably cos it serves the retail park and there's probably student flats nearby.

I'm sure that Nexus knew what they were doing when they decided to change the route.