GNE desperately need to contract an information architect. Passengers will no doubt see some of these changes as confusing:
- V3 being rerouted will no doubt cause issues—it contains half of the previous V3 route, and half of the previous V5 route. It should be re-numbered. I wonder how many will board the V3 thinking it will go through Bridgehill.
- X5/X15: when viewing the timetable on the website, selecting “To Consett & Shotley Bridge” implies you’re travelling from Durham to Consett, and not from, e.g., Bridgehill to Consett. It does not display the route to Consett on the “To Consett” tab. Towards Durham, it only implies there being one service an hour serving Bridgehill. [This is likely due to Shotley RC Church being the terminus point, but in reality Durham is the only terminus point of this service. Internal convenience for GNE should not be substituted for customer convenience]
- 45/X45/X46/47/47a is a mess of a timetable to look at or find anything on. How did anyone sign this off? Split them up. There is zero need for 47 to be grouped with (X)45/X46 when nobody is going to be travelling from Newcastle to Consett on the 47.
- 53/54 need to display the Quayside (from 5 Sep) on the timetable list, much like other services list additional stops from 5 Sep. Searching for the Quayside on the timetable list will only display ToonLink and Q3.
- Speaking of which, why does the search on the timetable list only search the “key” destinations? Poor UX.
I can’t comment on most other services, but these are pretty messy.
Oh well, at least we can view a “summary” of the changes in a 60 page document.