(06 Aug 2021, 3:57 pm)DeltaMan wrote I'm not sure what the answer is with the 71 situation. The 78 duplicates most of the route west of Fence Houses (although not FH itself) and the 4 covers most of Fence Houses to Houghton.
Houghton to Seaham "feels" like it needs a bus route but that costs you a bus alone. I wonder if it would have been more of a success back in the day if the Seaham part was tagged on a 4 once an hour ,like the proposed extensions to the X1
If there was a clock-face timetable between Chester and Woodstone village, then I could see the 71 and 78 working in harmony between those points.
As it is, they not only duplicate each other, but can follow each other too. Not much headway at all.
That tweaking of the timetable, coupled with a synchronisation with trains at Seaham and promotion of the route, may have seen it succeed.
This must be the third or fourth reincarnation of the route that never has worked and it was never going to suddenly start working this time.
Their repeated insistence on doing the same thing over and over... well it reeks of that laziness I mentioned the other day.