I personally think it's not feasible to merge Stanley with Riverside. Where would the venture network go for a start?! Those services are majority local town routes and those been run from Gateshead wouldn't be ideal.
Tom has already pointed out that morning journeys its people travelling into the city centres (like any route) where that by majority of morning passengers are from Consett going into Newcastle.
GNE are the principal bus operator in the Stanley area, not having any sort of depot there would not be very good at all.
It also means if there were a breakdown it would be hard to replace vehicles. With having Stanley depot, it means that breakdowns that side of the route it's easier to replace vehicles for the next run and if there was a breakdown at MetroCentre, hopefully Riverside could a replacement temporarily. A system which I'd like to hope works across the network. I've heard instances when a WTX renown was out on the X9 after a breakdown in Peterlee- which is good practice.
Losing Stanley would mean that there could be a drop in service to passengers from that area.
RE: Go North East: Latest News & Discussion - April 2015