(29 Aug 2013, 9:01 pm)big mac wrote I believe GNE have gone a bit too far in their obsession with having high frequency routes on a relatively small number of services. It is, of course, impractical to ever think that you'll have a direct link to anywhere in the North East from a certain location, but there's a pretty high number of direct links that have been lost in recent years which passengers would have found useful. Not everyone travels between points on the high frequency routes.
I agree. Personally, I agree that some routes were made better for some and worse for others.
For example, the 'new' 27 upped the buses to 6 per hour from 4 between South Shields and Jarrow and Hebburn College and Newcastle. It also upped buses from 2 to 6 per hour from Campbell Park Road and Monkton Lane Estate, as well as providing a faster link to Newcastle than the 87.
However, anyone travelling on the old 27A route (eg. Hebburn Quay, Victoria Road) lost their direct link to Gateshead and Newcastle and went from 2 buses per hour (27A) to 1 bus per hour (515 Heworth/Jarrow only), and it's taken until a few months ago to restore the link to Newcastle on some of the old 27A route with the new 27X.