(09 Jul 2014, 5:06 pm)Greg in Weardale wrote Each Economic route will obviously be more affected by the roadworks in Sunderland than the 35 as they are shorter routes so each vehicle will have to pass through them more often thus exacerbating the delays Also are the roadworks at Whitburn still there? They won't affect the 35. The other day it was taking 10+ minutes to get through them.

Each Economic route has roughly 10 minutes layover at South Shields though, don't they? I know I've certainly seen that as one E arrives into Shields, the one before it has pulled into the stand and is loading. The same applies at Sunderland too.

Without looking at the timetables, I'm inclined to suggest that the Laser has a lot less layover (off memory it gets less than five minutes at Shields), and with a larger route, is more likely to incur delays due to varying traffic levels, more passengers (presumably - due to the longer route), and of course the works on the bridge too.

I'd have certainly assumed that the Laser would incur worse delays than the Economic services, but hey ho, maybe I'm wrong.


Simmy has just mentioned above about the works at Whitburn. Due to their reasonably high layover time, they should make up any delays as a result of the works in Sunderland by the time they get back to Seaburn, Sunderland-bound. I really don't think the works at Whitburn can account for delays of up to 20 minutes...