(21 Nov 2014, 7:39 am)Tom wrote No it shouldn't. The loadings are actually very good around Downhill and Southwick when I've seen it, but the loadings to Boldon ASDA aren't the best.
..and this is primarily due to the fact there are now five buses per hour between some parts of North Sunderland estates (29 and X36) and Boldon ASDA, and customers opt for the one which comes first more often than not.
Nobody travels from Sunderland City Centre to Boldon ASDA using service 29 due to the fact service 9 does it quicker and it's more frequent.
In the Castletown area, service 29 is very good though. Begs the question why service 26 wasn't as good on this section of the route before - perhaps these customers had contacted Go North East to create a through service onward to Doxford Park, and maybe this is the reason why Go North East made the changes and have grabbed customers back again?