(25 Mar 2019, 10:34 pm)Dan wrote Cobalt Business Park in decline, the number of people working there has vastly decreased in recent years (yet more and more buses are being added in by Stagecoach!)

More and more offices are offering flexible working patterns - allowing staff to work from home, work longer hours (but with a four day week), etc.

One of the many challenges bus operators are facing in the current climate!

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

Yeah, I'd have to agree with that. I'd say that although Stagecoach are sending more buses to the Cobalt, GNE still have a stronghold particularly with the 309 as that is the most frequent (taking journey time into account) and viable option between Newcastle and the Cobalt. If any service was to be at bigger danger from the 22, it would be the Coaster but that seems to be doing ok. The 309 should be ok as that has grown beyond Cobalt too with it now being a viable alternative to the 308 plus holding an almost monopoly in Battle Hill with the 310 & 57.

On another note, if the re-timing of the 309 on a Sunday improved passenger numbers and GNE extended that into a regular evening service with a frequency increase, would users of the service towards Blyth from Cobalt kick off if the departures on an evening were moved to around the xx:25 & xx:55 mark? 

The 19 is a funny route though. Still just about gets by but a capacity decrease would make more sense.