(10 May 2014, 9:28 am)Robert wrote By doing this you would be erasing Arriva's competition on the 308 so it can potentially lose money. Would a company really want to do this? I'm not saying your idea is bad and you have said how passengers could connect with the 309/310 with the 58 at Cobalt.
The 58 wouldn't connect with the Cobalt Clipper at all. Every other journey (every 20 minutes) would operate to Cobalt in the mornings and from Cobalt during the teatime. So like during the mornings, the 58 would only operate to Hadrian Park every 20 minutes with the other three journeys going to Cobalt instead. During teatime, the 58 would only operate from Hadrian Park every 20 minutes with the other three journeys operating from Cobalt. That would solve the problem of the Cobalt Clipper missing out stops between St Mary's and Station Road. The 58 peak time journeys would operate Monday to Friday.
Also, the 309 and 310 would only lose out on frequency during the day with 2 buses ( 1 on either route) lost at the expense of a better journey time. The journey between Station Road and St Mary's would be reduced from 20-25 minutes at peak times to just under 15 minutes. Off peak, the journey time would be reduced from 15 minutes to just under 10 minutes. Also, despite the fact that the 309 would offer one less bus per hour than the 308 between Blyth and Rake Lane, the journey time would be quicker and the 20 minute frequency would still offer convenience to passengers. The 310 would also offer a similar journey time to the 306 between the Norham Road area and Newcastle.
It works for the TEN and it would potentially work on the Cobalt Clipper with good marketing. The Cobalt Clipper would still serve all stops between Station Road and Newcastle during the evenings and Sundays forming a combined frequency between Battle Hill Drive and St Mary's Place of every 10 minutes with Citylink 58 operating half hourly and both the 309 and 310 operating half hourly during the evenings and on Sundays.