(29 Sep 2021, 3:33 pm)Andreos1 wrote I've mentioned it before and I'll mention it again. Team Valley. There's a very poor service down there and operators don't seem willing to do much about it.
Telling punters about alternative weekday peak services is a start. But it seems to be the easy option. Almost a quick fix. Except I don't think it's going to fix anything, cos there will still be queues of cars clogging up Kingsway and there will be the same old delays to the 93/94.

The thing is, where do you stop on services to Team Valley? When I went to college there about 10 years ago, I was completely fine getting the X34 from the Nook or going to Shields to get the Metro then swapping to the 94 to Kingsway. Do we give people a direct bus from Harton Nook? I had classmates from Burnopfield, Ryton, Whiteleas, Washington, East Herrington, I know a few people who work on the Valley too from random areas of the North East too, none of them had direct buses. Yet when I see the workers services they're only ever carrying half a dozen people so where do you run a service from? I honestly don't know how you would route buses to these places where people work that would actually tempt people who think travelling to Gateshead and changing was too much hassle for them. Most of them seem to travel around most of an area to get enough passengers to justify, and in doing so it turns people away because it's quicker for someone in Sunderland to get the Metro or X24 to Gateshead and switching onto a 94 rather than travelling slowly across most of the Sunderland area on the 939 before heading to the Valley.

I know there's other examples too where I know people locally work such as Quorum, Cobalt or Doxford Park. Apparently there used to be a South Shields GNE depot operated bus that went from Shields around some estates onto the A19 at Lindisfarne Roundabout straight to Doxy, would that type of service be justifiable in the current climate? I don't think so.

I'm hoping this new enhanced bus partnership means services like this could be brought back and maybe entice people out of their cars? I doubt it though, and commercial operators are certainly not going to introduce services like this any time soon. People like my mate who works at the Valley and lives in Harton would rather sit in traffic in his car than go anywhere near a bus. Moving to electric cars at least will reduce localised pollution but congestion is only going to get worse for everyone.