(17 Aug 2021, 10:31 pm)Drifter60 wrote There’s a wider sense that Go North East have ‘given up’ in the Peterlee area. The article on the GNE site mentioned Arriva twice, both in reference to cuts in services in the Peterlee area and the alternative being use a rival operator. Wingate loses both the 202 and 55, both of which provided cross Peterlee connections and now the only GNE bus will be the reintroduced 206, which replaces the 55 south of Peterlee. But offers no cross town connections. The X7 is withdrawn, meaning the X6 is left as just an hourly service - no longer ‘XLINES’ so not promoted and being hourly means it doesn’t compete as much with the Arriva 22. And as mentioned they’ve removed the Durham to Peterlee link - handing passengers who may have chose GNE straight to Arriva. Although I accept Arriva do offer 4 buses per hour to Durham from Peterlee bus station.I mean I must say the X6 was become more popular recently, but I do agree that GNE is giving up on Peterlee which is a shame. I think GNE could have beat arriva's 22/23/24 however they never really tried. The 208 was like the 3rd most popular service of indiGO Peterlee brand.
They could have mitigated the changes more though and it feels like missed opportunities but I actually just wonder if GNE are cutting their loses. I’ve mentioned before that the X6 could have replaced the 202 from Peterlee to Station Town without the need to add another bus to the PVR. The X7 is withdrawn but at the same time they’ve added a new bus to Sunderland in the 62 service, which feels odd, I’m not sure who they’re expecting to use the 62 between Seaham and Sunderland? Easington and South Hetton would use the 55, Murton and Dalton Park the 61, most of Dawdon has the 60. Rather than send a new bus to Sunderland why not curtail the 62 at Seaham and have a half hourly X6 between Sunderland, Seaham, Dalton Park and Peterlee. And with Peterlee loosing their GNE service to Durham they could have promoted and timed the 55/65 to meet up in Hetton Bus Station, and promote the fact it’s more frequent than the 208 was although a change of bus is now required. Particularly for those in South Hetton and Easington Village this certainly would, or could, have mitigated the change.
RE: September Service Changes