(24 Aug 2020, 9:11 pm)James101 wrote Curious to hear by what measure you think Edinburgh and Nottingham are doing no better than Stagecoach in Hartlepool?

Network population coverage? Passenger satisfaction? Profit? Emissions?

They're two totally different networks for a start, ones an isolated town with multiple operators whereas the other two are in large cities with large areas of monopoly. No-one looks upto Lothian or Nottingham City Transport as the way to run a bus network, they're just more of the same as everyone else.

Lothian vs Stagecoach in Newcastle
Nottingham City Transport vs National Express West Midlands

There's not a big deal between them. There's lots of other factors which will have impacted things much more than who runs the buses. Back in the 1985 supermarkets were rare for starters. Who wants to go shopping on a bus with 10 bags of shopping. That's before you bring in things like online shopping etc. Times have changed but some won't accept that.

To bring it back to Stagecoach in Hartlepool what are exactly meant to do, no-one wants to shop in Hartlepool so people will be shopping at numerous other places not to mention the 3 large supermarkets you have all with car parks, 2 retail parks and a cinema and bingo hall nowhere near the centre. Blame the council for giving planning permission for them.

Also just to add personally I think DRT will be the future of buses in quite a few areas, it would work quite well in some places up in Tyne and Wear imo. North Tyneside for example would be a good spot for it for a replacement of the W1, W2, W3, 59, 335, 359, 41 etc. possibly the 11 aswell. Could give some areas ie. Murton and Briardene a decent service which they don't have atm.