(06 Dec 2021, 11:51 am)54APhotography wrote History tells us Freeports have a negative effect. I don't see 5-10% of their estimation.. If the demand for the Tesco distribution centre wasn't enough for a bus, I can't see what would be..
Freeports aside, I wonder if its lack of demand or lack of initiative from councils and transport operators?
Amazon at Follingsby has a bus every 7-8 minutes at shift times to Heworth, yet Amazon at Bowburn (which was quoted as also having 1,000 permanent jobs in the press release) has nothing but fresh air serving it. I don't believe the make up of employees will be much different between the two sites, so it seems to be that one operator has had the initiative, but the operator serving the other hasn't.
Darlington have a bus, but I understand that is funded by time-limited section 106 money from planning. In Bowburn's case, the s106 money went towards education provision iirc. I think the Follingsby operation is fully commercial too.
(06 Dec 2021, 11:55 am)Andreos1 wrote Someone needs to get the ball rolling and quickly. Particularly with this whole freeport thing and the supposed boost to the already high levels of employment there.
It seems crazy we have operators saying theyre struggling and passenger numbers aren't reaching pre-pandemic levels and on the other hand, huge employers like Teesport don't have any public transport provision, never mind provision at times to suit shift-patterns.
Kudos to GNE and Amazon in this case. I just hope it was the start of a total change in thinking by operators and not an exception to the rules.
Yep, GNE and Amazon Follingsby is a superb example of how partnership should work in my opinion, but like you say, hopefully this becomes the norm and not the exception.