(02 Sep 2023, 9:33 pm)Storx wrote I have to disagree personally, I just find them generally a nuisance where they are. I'm all for proper interchanges, as I do think they are needed as you can't control timings but most the bus stations are just in the wrong place. Gateshead for example is a great interchange as it actually works with the Metro.

Park Lane on the otherhand is a long trek for example if someone is going to the Fire Station or Nando's which are both pretty reasonable reasons to be there and it's a grim waiting experience nevertheless anyway.

You have to remember your trying to fight against cars here who can go wherever they want, having a bus which can drop you off at one end of the street and then you can get on at the other end is literally a selling point. Having a bus station further away that the nearest car park is a massive negative, why bother using the bus? Not to mention if it's somewhere like Haymarket it's absolutely useless if you need to haul a case through to get on a train at Central.

Obviously we could go into the argument whether most these buses should exist AT ALL and people should be using an interchange to get onto a Metro train or tram, miles out of town, which takes you right into the heart of the city underground or on unique tracks with integrated ticketing and more frequent services on the connecting services rather than having 5 buses all trying to serve here there and everywhere but we live in Britain and public transport is just an inconvience to our politicians. It's pretty much how it works in every other country in the world and ironically Newcastle and Sunderland already have the Metro to do that, you just can't connect to it or it misses the most dense populations.

Is the Fire Station a long trek from Park Lane? It's only a 5 minute walk straight down and through the Bridges. Nandos, a little less so, but not a great distance at all. If you absolutely can't manage it, then there's a whole host of services from Park Lane/Stockton Road to Fawcett Street, which cuts the walk right down.

As I've said time and time again, you're never going to win the battle against cars for shoppers. Buses aren't designed to cater for shoppers; they haven't got any space for shopping, for a start. Leisure trade, then I think it's fair game, as unless you've got someone on soft drinks willing to drive, then the bus is the most effective and can be the cheapest option.

In the years ahead, I think we'll end up seeing more and more town and city centre streets become pedestrianised, in the long battle to improve air quality. Buses with renewable fuels have to be part of the solution to that, but the Great British public are also going to need to get used to using their feet more.

(03 Sep 2023, 7:31 am)citaro5284 wrote Slightly off subject, but when I am travelling around, I am quite surprised how many places in Yorkshire have bus stations and they seem to love them down there.  Thinking of Heckmondwike, Castleford and Cleckheaton to name a couple.

I do think some of them are quite a way from the main shopping centres too like Wakefield but that one, everytime I have been there always seems well used.

Even Leeds bus station, by the argument presented on here, is in the completely wrong place and at the bottom of the hill to all the shops. It doesn't seem to stop it being really well used.