(10 Jun 2015, 10:38 am)Andreos1 wrote The roughly 10mins late rule, seems to be the norm, at least when I have been on it or seen it on the western portion of the route.
No idea where the issue lies though. Although I haven't used or witnessed the section east of the galleries since the changes earlier this year.
When the 82/83 ran, there were often delays, but the combined '15min' frequency, meant that the chances of one of them turning up was greater - even if they ran together for portions of the route.
Now, it has got to the stage where I daren't run the risk of going for it and choose to drive instead.
I think issue is purely down to the routing of the Service around Birtley, Think of how many Minutes you could cut off the current route around Birtley by doing the following route: Note the Timetable says it takes 14 Minutes to go from Portobello Board Inn to Northside, so that is 28 Minutes their and back.
So I would do: Barley Mow - Portobello - Portmeads - Fell Bank - Harras Bank - Birtley Town Centre - Northside - Portmeads - Portobello - Barley Mow
I would imagine this would cut around 7/8 Minutes off the Journey Time altogether possibly more.