(15 Oct 2013, 6:12 am)aureolin wrote The Silver Arrows was consulted on only last year. I believe this was along with the proposal to terminate half of the M1 journeys at fatfield. The M2/M3 hasn't been done for a while afaik, but that was councillor driven so I'm lead to believe.
On the W5/W6, you're always going to have that problem. I could drive to Sunderland in 10 mins but it'd take 3x that by bus. Durham is 15 mins in a car or an hour by 2 buses. They'd argue you could get to concord in 10 mins anyway if you had a 5 min walk to the Vic and got the M1.
Cheers for the info regarding the consultations.
Yeah I see where you are coming from mate. A journey by bus will always take longer than a journey by car. However if they insist on people leaving the car at home and taking the bus, I feel they could be doing more to make the bus a bit more appealing to use. At the end of the day people want to get to where they need to go as quick as possible, with as little hassle as possible. Now I personally don't mind at all walking a few minutes up the road to catch a bus but not everyone will want to do this when he weather is bad for instance or when they have the convienence of their car parked right outside their house.
Here are some examples what I think may be worth trying:-
Instead of running the W5 to Brady Square, why not extend the new Connections 4 to serve here instead? It passes the Vic anyway as you say and should only add around 2 or 3 minutes onto the journey. Alternatively, the W5 and W6 could maybe become circular services, something like this: -
W5: - Concord - Donwell - Parsons - Armstrong - Blackfell Thirlmoor - Oxclose - Washington Galleries - Sainsbury's - Biddick - Brady Square - Concord (via Emmerson Terrace, Westwood Club, JFK Primary School, then onto A195 and A1290)
W6: - Concord - Donwell - Parsons - Armstrong - Blackfell Knoulberry - Oxclose - Washington Galleries - Sainsbury's - Biddick - Barmston Court - Teal Farm - Waterview Park - Peel Retail Park - Concord.
I know these ideas would increase the PVR but at least some of the areas currently ommitted by GNE would gain a regular bus service and they would provide quicker links to both the Galleries and Concord. Just a thought anyway.