(30 Aug 2021, 6:39 pm)Andreos1 wrote I'm not sure anyone has ever suggested a bus being provided for every opportunity.
I've certainly suggested (and I know others have too), that the network is reimagined and it is adapted to suit changing travel patterns.
Before anyone gets on their protective high-horse - this isn't about one specific operator.
It's the whole lot here in the NE and there are many examples of the network now, being as it was (or pretty similar) 20, 30, 40 years ago when town and city centres were king, out of town retail parks were new, business parks didn't exist and the internet was in its infancy (or didn't exist).
Yes, Drifter60 may have provided one example on one day, but who is to say that the residents living on the route of the 60, don't fancy a day out on the other side of the river?
Who is to say that people living on the north side of the river don't work at Seaham?
Or do we just pretend that keeping the status quo is good, changing buses is easy and ticketing works nicely?
Do the older style services work in a modern environment though, when there's say multiple buses that use the same corridor that go to completely different places work in the modern environment though? And I don't just mean the 56, 35, 12/13 and 3 all using North Hylton Road.
For example there was a time when there was a bus that followed the current 20 route to Sunderland then onto Seaham. It was and still is my main route to Sunderland, yet I don't seem to remember it in my childhood? I only ever remember getting the 535/536, or E6. I'm not sure how you'd incorporate that into a modern bus network. If I actually wanted to get to Seaham by bus, I think I'd probably just jump on the first bus that got me to Park Lane, then the first bus to Seaham from there, which I think the current system is built for? Would more people who don't plan public transport journeys like I do just wait for the bus that had Seaham written on the front, even if it was hourly, despite their being buses every 12 minutes across the whole route from the same operator?
I'm not really sure where the solution is, and whether people would use it more than the current system. Or am I missing a third option that is better than the old and new system?