(09 Aug 2024, 9:46 pm)Andreos1 wrote In reality, there's not that many people who live on the corridor. 
Ultimately, the 21 ploughs up and down High Streets and relies on services feeding in and out of it. 
If it wasn't for the 34 and it's ilk, who else is likely to walk the mile or so to/from the hilly estates in Chester or Birtley or the pre-war housing on the valleys surrounding Low Fell? 

Or in the example of my folks, who drive, park and use their twirly passes if they're popping in to the town. 

The irony being, that they have an infrequent bus within spitting distance of where they live plus frequent services passing close by. But each of them are feeding in to the hub and spoke model (which doesn't work for them). 
Easy enough getting to the town as the less frequent bus generally connects well with the more frequent Newcastle bus at the hub. 
Pain in the preverbial when the frequent bus from Newcastle doesnt arrive at a time that works for the less frequent bus home. Or the less frequent bus has finished for the night...

Yeah you're right there mind. To be honest, though it'd be interesting to see what the loads are like as a percentage beyond the Angel as they never seem very busy to me.

I can't imagine there will be many people interchanging onto it though, other than the 34 - maybe. The 'connecting' services are just too infrequent for it to be a realistic option especially in places like Birtley but then again the 21 isn't busy at that point anyway. Arguably a 15 minute service is probably more than enough between the Angel and CLS, there's definitely no need for 8 buses an hour.

If only they used those 4 other buses to serve other areas instead...