(05 May 2020, 11:17 pm)tyresmoke wrote I think the main provlem with that is you’d end up with the 36 and new 37 on top of each other from Norton through to Hartlepool as it wouldn’t lose half hour to go via the hospital I wouldn’t think.
(06 May 2020, 8:17 am)Kuyoyo wrote Working on current times
37 gets 10 minutes from Norton Red Lion to the Hospital, then the 58 and Arriva's X22 both get 10 minutes from the Hospital down Durham Road into Stockton so looking at about 20 minutes if the 37 was revised to the above idea.
BUT why then sabotage the current 8 buses an hour down Norton Road to Middlesbrough by reducing the 36 to half hourly and taking the 37 away to try and cover a link that has previously been proven not to be commercially viable overwise somebody would have commercially registered the H1 when the funding was withdrawn.
You aren't going to push away your bread-and-butter passengers along Norton Road to provide a direct journey that is probably only required by a handful of people.
A better solution would be, once this is over and once things have settled down, is to allow journeys on Tees Flex from the Hartlepool Zone to North Tees Hospital. It's a damn sight easier than destroying a sustainable network for a handful of people.
I've thought it through a bit more based on these comments, all times based on regular timetables:
There is a drop in direct buses to Boro from 5 bus stops along Norton Road, from 8 buses per hour to 4. That said, all stops on Norton Road are still served at every 6/7 minutes from Norton to Stockton when combined with service 52. I'd argue 4 buses per hour extending to Boro would be sufficient for 5 stops which have no other competitor operator.
I'm not sure it's as black and white as saying the H1 link isn't viable as it was withdrawn. The H1 was a standalone route with a low and uneven frequency. No ticket integration with Stagecoach or Arriva was available and Compass Royston offered no further network connections. This proposal largely runs on established corridors with existing resources. If anything I'd say the biggest barrier to this ever happening is how the current ENCTS system incentivises operators to break up journeys which are used by pass holders (i.e. hospital services) as it generates two journeys for reimbursement rather than one.