(06 Dec 2021, 12:22 pm)Adrian wrote Freeports aside, I wonder if its lack of demand or lack of initiative from councils and transport operators?Absolutely, I think the lack of services to Bowburn are a direct result of Durham Council bias and blunder. Services 56-59 and X12 pass nearby and a diversion would not be a problem at all. It's not as if the jobs are high paying, so public transport would be a massive bonus and be gratefully patronised.
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.
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.
RE: Reversing the decline in passenger numbers