(25 Mar 2014, 2:33 pm)eezypeazy wrote This isn't my opinion - this is fact:
Fact: The evening service to Hexham is now hourly - when Arriva ran it there were large gaps, making a night out in Hexham impossible from places east of Corbridge.
Fact: GNE now offers four buses per hour to Metrocentre, all deckers, therefore more seats Prudhoe - Metrocentre than ever before. Arriva provided two bph.
Fact: In the morning peak, there's a bus every ten minutes between Prudhoe and Newcastle, including the two 11A journeys on bendys.
My observation: Arriva's reliability on the old 604 was notoriously poor.
Fair enough. I accept (and agree with) the points you make about the quality of service improving on the Prudhoe to Metrocentre corridor and also the fact about there being now six buses in the morning instead of four. As you have proven Prudhoe does have a better service than before. Looking at the timetable, it appears (and I maybe wrong about this) that one extra bus (in each direction) has been added between Hexham and Prudhoe to make the service hourly in the evening so, once again, you are right to make that point. However, outside of Prudhoe - heading towards Hexham, the level of service remains mostly the same with the exception of that one extra evening bus. For someone living in, say, Mickley or Stocksfield, the perception might be that nothing's really changed. As I said, GNE did improve the service for a short period, but curtailed the level of frequency back to the same level as when Arriva operated 602. This is also fact.
Do you think that withdrawing from Redwell Road/Drawback/West Wylam has improved the quality of service? - I have no idea how passenger numbers were before the route was changed, but I remember at the time that there was some level of protest (probably quite minimal in retrospect) when that decision was made. Was this one reason why the reliability of the 604 was 'notoriously poor' in your observation?