(29 Sep 2021, 4:57 pm)deanmachine wrote 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.

I'm not sure it's about sending a bus from here there and everywhere. It's about finding a market and giving them something which will be attractive.

As an example, we see operators complain about traffic through Birtley, argue for a bus lane approaching the Angel and have offered peak time diversions to the X21 to avoid the motorway - but have done pretty sweet FA in regards to offering a viable alternative for those many, many drivers or cars not going to Low Fell, Gateshead or Newcastle. 

Yes, there is the option of a 21 or X21 to Low Fell (potentially an 82 from one of the estates in to Birtley prior) and a 93 from there, but is that going to be attractive? Are people really going to make the switch from the warm, comfortable car to a combination of buses which heads in a different direction and then do the same back at the end of their day?

Instead, we continue to see buses stuck at key pinch points, heading nowhere near where the bulk of the traffic is going and we see millions of pounds spent on road widening schemes. 

I want people to make the modal switch. But I genuinely can't see that happening on mass, unless the network adapts and changes, taking its focus away from sending half the fleet in and out of the town with a load of bus lanes being built along the way.