(12 Apr 2022, 9:13 pm)Malarkey wrote With Service Cuts seeming to becoming the new norm here in the North East I have had a look through the Go North East Network to see if some of services could be consolidated into others improving local services in terms of recovering passenger numbers following on from Covid-19, the method of consolidation worked in parts when Go North East had a massive shake up of it's services in 2006 and is clearly needed again some 16 years later given how much services have been chopped and changed. I guess I have done the same you say but in turn also provided a more stable network of services in the long term. I have spent quite a few hours over the past week working on these whilst also throwing in some throwback services of the late 80's/90's into the early 00's reinstating some long lost local links.
21 – Howlands Park & Ride – Durham University - Durham - Framwellgate Moor - Arnison Centre - Plawsworth - Chester-le-Street - Birtley - Low Fell - Gateshead – Newcastle
• Section of route between Durham & Brandon replaced by the X22.
• Service extended via N21 Route to Durham University and further to Howlands Park & Ride
• Service 21 will continue to operate to current frequency for the runs which operate to Durham.
X22 – Newcastle – Gateshead – Low Fell – Chester-Le-Street – Durham – Langley Moor - Brandon – Brancepeth – Crook – Bishop Auckland – Staindrop – Barnard Castle
• New Service X22 will operate Hourly Monday to Sundays replacing the 21 runs to Brandon.
• The Service will be extended from Brandon to Barnard Castle via Crook and Bishop Auckland opening several new links.
X23 - Newcastle – Gateshead – Low Fell – Chester-Le-Street – Durham – Langley Moor - Brandon – Brancepeth – Crook – Bishop Auckland – Shildon – Aycliffe Village – Darlington
• New Service X23 will operate Hourly Monday to Sundays replacing the 21 runs to Brandon.
• The Service will be extended from Brandon to Darlington via Crook and Bishop Auckland opening several new links.
I like what you're going for here with the 21, X21, X22, X23 and while they would be great, I think perhaps a tad unrealistic, however I do think in an ideal world of joined up thinking, some tidying up of DCC contracts could occur here.
The 21, I think it would make more sense for it to run to Mount Oswald estate rather than the P&R, that way you can replace service 42.
I think the X22/23 although nice in theory would struggle in practice. GNE have already tried and failed in Darlington, can't see them going for that again, and you're never gonna compete with the train journey time wise. I'd say you could probs get away with the X23 as far as Crook, which I do think there would be scope for, competing against the X46.
As for the X22, I would say there would be scope if you entered into some sort of partnership with DCC. I would thus suggest it run from Brandon to Oakenshaw and then the route of the 108/9 into Bishop Auckland replacing that service. You could even then extend it to Toft Hill replacing the 87, emulating Arriva's previous service 50 which ran in 2012 to a similar route from Toft Hill to Durham.
As for the Barnard Castle stretch, I'd tack that on to the end of the X21, again in partnership with DCC, replacing Scarlet Band service 85. If you really wanted to, I suppose you could extend the other X21 to Darlington via the route of the 84 but I reckon that would be pushing it a bit. More realistically you could have the 84 Cockfield to Darlington merged with the 83 Cockfield to Barnard Castle.
What I will say tho is despite all being nice suggestions, realistically I think they'd be too long and you'd be having to look at splitting them in Durham, but then you're losing the appeal for passengers in Brandon and West Auckland who might go beyond Durham and could think they may as well get the more frequent 49 or 6 instead.