(21 Nov 2019, 11:39 pm)Storx wrote Everyone always mentions pricing and buses for the reason for the reduction in bus use but is it just me who thinks the bus network is just outdated completely.

Most routes have barely changed since the 80's however where people actually want to be have massively and unless you drive some of them are just impossible to get to. Some examples:

Metro Centre - Bar the 6/7 there's absolutely no service from the whole of the West End of Newcastle unless you travel the wrong direction and back on yourself.
Silverlink - No service at all bar the 19/22. 306/308 too far and the A19 roundabout isn't a walk you want to do.
Team Valley - No service bar the Loop
Arnison Centre - No service to the North or West.
Durham Dragonville - No service to North, East or South.
Teeside Park - One bus every 30 minutes, miles from the shops.
Cleveland Retail / Tesco Eston - One bus every 30 minutes.

Yet places like North Shields, Durham City Centre, South Shields, Stockton etc have loads of buses going into them from all over where sadly people don't really want to be nowadays as there's nothing left anymore. It's no wonder bus usage is decreasing.

I think the trouble is it's hard to have a direct route between all places, hub and spoke is far more efficient than point to point. You can get to most places in the North East with only one change, and to just about anywhere else with 2 changes. I think that's more than adequate!

But the problem with that is like I said further up, Stagecoach, GNE and Arriva all have their areas, and until there is a ticket that you can use in all areas (I know that exists within T&W, but a there's no cross-border tickets) it'll always be more expensive than taking the car.

I also think it's a bit disingenuous to say there are no services for Arnison centre and Dragonville since it's fairly easy to just change buses. Assuming you want to stay within the GNE network:

Arnison Centre - From the north you can catch the 50 from CLS, from everywhere else you can catch the 14 from Durham
Dragonville - You can just change at Durham to the 204/208. If you're coming from South Shields/Sunderland, it's a fairly short walk from Durham City Retail Park, or if you're particularly lazy (like me), you can time the journey right and change to the 208 and go 2 stops.

I think one step towards making the bus network more appealing is to offer actual express services. I don't care how much GNE think it is, the X21 is not an express service. It takes 4 times longer to travel between Bishop Auckland and Newcastle as it does to take the car, and for most people that makes it unusable. 

I would gladly lose the direct link to Newcastle from Tindale if GNE would offer an actual express service between Bishop Auckland and Newcastle, calling only at Spennymoor, Durham, Chester le Street, Gateshead and Newcastle. Even if it was only an hourly service, it would probably still cut the journey time enough to make it usable.
I see no reason for the X21 to go via Framwellgate Moor, that area is served more than enough by the 21, it should go express between CLS and Durham, either via the A1 or A167 depending on traffic. 

I would have loved to see the new X-lines network be a network of express routes, but the way I see it is they're just rebranding routes to make them seem faster without changing anything meaningful (X45/46/47)