I smell a fish with the new buses on the 306:

- Slightly smaller buses than a full size single deck.
- No mention of Battle Hill on the destination exterior paintwork listing.

I've got a sneaky feeling that the next time Arriva make changes in North Tyneside, they'll pull the 306 out of Battle Hill and keep it on the Coast Road to assist with the reliability of the 308 and keep both services every 7/8 minutes combined throughout between Billy Mill and Newcastle. I know they tried it back in 2010 but now with the smaller and more fuel efficient buses, they could probably perhaps afford to now.

I know it would most likely give GNE's Clippers an advantage but on a genuine note, it would be a good move because it would assist hugely with the reliability of the 308 rather than having to add more time to it. Remember the turn up and go expectation from passengers that was mentioned in GNE's forum? Look at it this way for journeys towards Newcastle:

- 308 (19), 306 (24), then a 10 minute gap where passengers think that they both run every 7-8 minutes but in those extra 2-3 minutes, passengers for the next 306 begin to appear and if the 308 runs into trouble before Billy Mill by more than 2 minutes, it can cause huge delays to the route not to mention the sole 308 dependency area between Willington Square / Gibson Street and the Battle Hill slip road further up.