I agree, I'm not massively in favour of QC purely on the reliability of Nexus but dismissing the changes as 'e are making some changes to the times of a small number of journeys on services in County Durham and North Tyneside to improve reliability or which few passengers use'
You can guarantee if they'd added a 5.45 journey they'd trumpeting it to the high heaven.
Staying with service changes, when the 24 was altered and finished in Gateshead, the Facebook wall was full of posts from Harlow Green and parts of Wrekenton and Low Fell complaining about the change for a good week. Then it changed to the reliability of the 24 (of which the number 1 will surely be worse?!)
Then shock horror, GNE find people actually wanted the service to Newcastle! They had to see this coming? It's almost like route changes are done in the most cynical way to see what they can get away with before triumphantly telling us 'we listened to 8,000'
Well, you didn't. If you'd listened to 8,000 then you'd never have made the changes to Angel 24 in the first place!
It's funny how GNE have quickly restored the 24's route back into Newcastle, but there are other places within Gateshead that lost a direct link to Newcastle and still do not have one.
For example, when the Orbit 51/52 was altered to terminate at Gateshead, both Easedale Gardens in Beacon Lough and Springwell Estate lost a direct Newcastle bus, both areas with a sizeable number of residents. There was quite a bit of dissent when this was first done, but GNE allowed it to blow over and the route still remains Gateshead-Gateshead.
Why is the 24 so much more important?