(30 Oct 2023, 11:13 am)Ambassador wrote That map is really interesting and does reinforce the issues .
I'm doing some work on Colleague Commutes at the moment and we have some backup emergency sites (that we normally use for power or data loss etc) that we've activated for colleagues in the area to use down at Team Valley around Kingsway North during the strikes and also it's handily placed around our annual testing.
What was quite stark is that unless you stick to the workers services which don't really work around modern shift patterns, it's quicker to commute via bus to Newcastle from Birtley than it is to Kingsway North - you're looking roughly at 30 mins for the former and anywhere between 35-52 minutes for the Valley commute
A journey of around 3 miles that can be made by car in 8 minutes to one of the major employee centres in the region
Aye it's bonkers, the Tyne Tunnel heading towards Cobalt where I think you's are based is just as bad.
imo there badly needs to be four round the town services let's call them super loops, because why not, which are:
SL1: Cramlington - Great Park - Kingston Park (M) - some areas in the West End - Metro Centre
SL2: Metro Centre (NR) - Dunston - Team Valley - Birtley - Washington
SL3: Northumberland Park (M/NR) - Cobalt - Silverlink - Percy Main (M) - Jarrow (M) - Fellgate (M) - Boldon Colliery (ASDA)
SL4: Boldon Colliery (ASDA) - Hylton / Castletown - Pennywell - Farringdon - Doxford Park - Seaham (NR)
You could combine SL1/SL2 and SL3/SL4 but they'd be rather long.
Do I think they'll make millions of pounds, no but if you really want a 'hub and spoke' network then they're really needed. Would change things big time as it links the main hubs up so say if someone does need to go to Nissan from Percy Main they've now got an easy choice to change to the 50 at Boldon Colliery or if someone needs to go to Team Valley from Ryton they can change at the Metro Centre etc and pretty much all the routes heading towards Newcastle hit them somewhere.