(17 Dec 2021, 8:37 am)Storx wrote I might be living under a rock but isn't there like a Stagecoach service every 5 minutes outside where you live. Need is the wrong word here, it's your choice you refuse to use them, it's not upto tax payers to pay for that though. I don't really see the point in the 84A at all it duplicates other services mostly and can't really see the links, RVI? I might be missing something though.
The 84 I get but it's too infrequent so it's just as easy to go into Newcastle and back out for most people. They definitely shouldn't be more frequent paid by tax payers though.
Trust me, it wasn't an easy choice to stop using Stagecoach. Choice isn't really the word (there isn't a word really). For the sake of my health and sanity, I reluctantly started using other services. Now I really enjoy it, and realised a whole ago it saves a bit of money on bus fares and provides more travel options. Yes, thee is a bus timetabled for every 5 minutes or so but I've waited about half an hour for a Stagecoach bus in the past, and when going to Byker I hated the wait sitting on the bus in town when I could be on my way. Just because there should be a bus every 5 minutes doesn't mean there actually is. Had no end of trouble getting places on time on various services and now much prefer the less frequent and less convenient 42A, 74 and X84/X85, even 33A and Q3 before the Sunday X85 was introduced to get me wherever I need to be on time and in a more relaxed fashion. 84A, 131, 792.and 808 are close by and provide a more reliable service and have friendlier drivers than Stagecoach.
84/84A don't need to be more frequent. 792 and 808 could maybe run an extra trip each way.
For 10 years I relied on Stagecoach before I gave up. Don't miss them and I'm healthier without them. They won't let GNE run a quick loop through Slatyford because they don't want competition they would lose against. After maybe 25 years of Stagecoach I'm happily divorced from them!
Taxpayers shouldn't need to fund alternative services, competition should be commerciallly operated and supporting by the bus fares.