(29 Aug 2024, 7:59 am)logidoodah wrote https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/nor...818568.amp
As many people have said I don't know how people can be so privileged to live in a new estate and own a car who clearly don't use the bus hence why the Q3 has been cut and cut since it was the X40 same with the 46 (now the X46) which went from 15 mins Freq to hourly. To then reject BETTER bus services for everyone (and the west side of Great Park actually having a bus), I mean come on in 2024 someone is actually trying to improve and create new bus links instead of having minimal hourly services - this is RARE! I mean why does it have to be one or the other...
Why couldn't they demand for the 49 to go to other places for better links which depending on how far would only be a PVR +1. Or just the Q3 at a half hourly frequency to go to through Brunton Park both ways and connect to the P&R site giving what looks to be the 'needed' connections to Gosforth (not sure about Jesmond) or even the X46 to extended which would also suffice.
They have either signed the petition expecting a decrease in services and jumping on the bandwagon (just look at the state of privatisation) or genuinely will give up everything to be able to connect to Gosforth High Street and Jesmond!
Nonetheless they have gone from an abysmal 3x Q3's an hour, to 4x X47s, 1x 49 (extended at peaks) & Q3X (at peaks) so up to 6 buses per hour. Yet people are stupid enough to demand the 3 buses and hour and an hourly service after 6pm and on Sundays.
I have no words.
Those organising the petition seem to either be deliberately spreading information, or are too thick to understand what the changes actually entail.
The changes represent a significant increase in daytime and evening frequencies, an improvement in journey times to Newcastle, while maintaining the link with Gosforth through the 49.
These frequency and journey time improvements are nowhere to be seen in any of the posts by the people most actively promoting the petition, who seem more bothered about getting home from a pub in Gosforth on a Sunday night.
Of the 2000 signatures, I genuinely believe a significant amount of them will be due to people believing that the bus service is going entirely because of the 'cutting us off' claims peddled constantly on Facebook pages and the Chronicle.
They've also started to be annoyed at the fact that Stagecoach will operate diesel buses, without grasping that they meet Euro 6 emissions standards and that they live on a new build estate with lorries driving around constantly...
The Q3 as it stands is essentially worthless as a service to anyone wanting to get to or from Newcastle, which is surely the predominant use case for it.