(08 Jan 2018, 10:14 pm)markydh wrote   Just needs a bit of TLC?  It would break pretty much every health, safety and accessibility rule in the book!  Never going to happen, and besides which, it's a bloody hike from there to town!  At least be realistic.  The intention is to ultimately build a new bus station on Durrant Road for south of Tyne bus routes (i.e. those that enter Newcastle via the Tyne Bridge).  But for now, the council are looking at introducing a bus loop.  I have no idea whether it will be clockwise or anti-clockwise but there are already some GNE drivers that access Eldon Square from the Haymarket direction.  I bet the same people who say this will be 'disastrous' are the same people who said it about the pedestrianisation of Northumberland Street.  Now who would even dream of reintroducing traffic on there?!?!

(08 Jan 2018, 10:48 pm)ifm001 wrote Be realistic!!!!

A hike from there to town. Out of Worswick Street next street is Pilgrim Street (in the town)

For years it was good enough for people to walk to and from. Course its not too far.

(09 Jan 2018, 12:06 am)markydh wrote It's further than Market Street, which is the way buses would go.  Uphill.  Sorry, but Worswick Street is just an enthusiast's misty eyed wet dream.

(06 Jun 2018, 2:50 pm)Andreos1 wrote https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/major-newcastle-city-centre-bus-14750792.amp?__twitter_impression=true

Road to close over summer and buses are affected.

(11 Jul 2019, 10:06 am)Rob44 wrote It wouldn't be to bad if they were used for the reason they were put there for....... the one on John Dobson street is more of a skate park when I've passed it

I actually saw a cyclist on the one on John Dobson street, once.

(11 Jul 2019, 6:26 pm)BusLoverMum wrote

I actually saw a cyclist on the one on John Dobson street, once.

To be fir so have i. He wasn't riding his bike though .... he was pushing it whilst drinking a can of stella!

https://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/2019-09-06/plans-for-a-clean-air-toll-on-tyneside-scrapped-as-councillors-finalise-plans-to-improve-air-quality/

Details of air quality plans for City Centre

(06 Sep 2019, 2:26 pm)Rob44 wrote so couple of things. .... would all stagecoach and GNE buses meet the requirement not to have to pay the daily charge? If some do and some wouldn't how would the councils know which buses were entering the zome? ( anpr camera? )? could GNE and stagecoach not just terminate at gateshead and either let passengers get the Metro or supply a shuttle bus that meets the emissions and run that to Newcastle over the tyne bridge?

No idea, sure we will find out in due course.

Rumours that there will be changes to the road layout on the Tyne Bridge though.

https://twitter.com/bbcnewcastle/status/1169976135045787648?s=09

(06 Sep 2019, 3:57 pm)Rob44 wrote yes blocking off the slip road southbound before the bridge.... thats the one with the bus lane I think

Martijn Gilbert was on Radio Newcastle about an hour back and he was chatting about his thoughts.

He reckons 30% of the fleet (under the current purchasing strategy) wouldnt meet the emissions targets set at time of launch.

There is also a query as to whether the B5 hybrids would meet the targets or not, similar questions applied to SNE's gas buses.

I thought he presented himself well, but inevitably, questions were put to him about fares.

The presenter countered that she travels from Wallsend to the BBC studios in her car and it is cheaper than the bus.

I think that's the crux.

You can have all the emissions zones, bus lanes and buses in the world, but if sharing a taxi or using the car is cheaper...

(06 Sep 2019, 5:50 pm)idiot wrote Should be charging private cars to!

And risk chasing 0eople who don't work in the city centre off to the Metrocentre or other put of town shops and restaurants.

(06 Sep 2019, 4:50 pm)Andreos1 wrote

Martijn Gilbert was on Radio Newcastle about an hour back and he was chatting about his thoughts.

He reckons 30% of the fleet (under the current purchasing strategy) wouldnt meet the emissions targets set at time of launch.

There is also a query as to whether the B5 hybrids would meet the targets or not, similar questions applied to SNE's gas buses.

I thought he presented himself well, but inevitably, questions were put to him about fares.

The presenter countered that she travels from Wallsend to the BBC studios in her car and it is cheaper than the bus.

I think that's the crux.

You can have all the emissions zones, bus lanes and buses in the world, but if sharing a taxi or using the car is cheaper...

But the thing is if she is using the bus to commute to work every day, there is no way she would be buying a return ticket every day. It would be more cost effective to buy a weekly ticket as Martijn said. Then again, assuming a clean run, it'd probably cost her about £1.20 in petrol/diesel for her return journey, there is no way a bus could compete with that... or could it?

What people fail to take into account is by the time you add in all the extra expenses of running a car like buying/leasing the car, maintenance, insurance, the car does actually become quite expensive.

If for example we lease a base Vauxhall Corsa with maintenance included, that's probably going to cost around £160 a month, plus insurance that's taking it to about £200 a month just to have the car.

Then the price of the fuel for her journey on top of that would take it to about £225 a month.

If we then look at the price of a 2 Zone Network One pass, which is what she would need, that is only £86.50 for a 4 week ticket.

Less than half the cost per month for her journey, and that's assuming she only uses her car for commuting.

With a car, the more you travel, the more fuel you use, so the more it costs. With a bus pass, you can use it as much as you like and it costs the same

The City Centre is a bit of a mess, you can argue its down to cuts, the council, lack of investment, Brexit, but the fact of the matter is over the past 10 years the City has seen a lot of changes to road layouts, a lot of businesses leave, and vain attempts at small investment in certain places.

The Road changes across the city have created more problems, than solved. John Dobson street is a complete joke, the high level bridge junction has been made worse! Somehow?

 A bridge should of been put in years ago between the tunnels and the main bridges across the tyne. This would of been a step in the right direction of keeping traffic away from the city & the coast road.

A Park & Ride system should of been set up to prevent cars entering the city, the council just can't be arsed to do anything that involves invoice management or any admin, which can be seen in the overall cleanliness of the City.

Closing Blackett street on a weekend, as much as I can see what is trying to be done, looks awful. The place looks like a chav ridden haven with tacky fairground rides and cheap furniture. It does not scream of a City Centre Location, and if I was a tourist to the city would be slightly confused as to what the hell was going on.

There are plenty things that can be done, that can generate money as well as solving the problem. Charging for buses/taxis etc is just a quick cash grab & solves nothing. If they do strip the tyne bridge down to one lane each way, they are essentially creating more standstill pollution, the mind boggles.

(06 Sep 2019, 6:31 pm)Arcticrossy92 wrote

A Park & Ride system should of been set up to prevent cars entering the city, the council just can't be arsed to do anything that involves invoice management or any admin, which can be seen in the overall cleanliness of the City. 

I mean, there is an unofficial park and ride system in place, that being the Metrocentre. I know a few people who just park in the Metrocentre and get the bus into Newcastle, and for me anyway paying £15 a week to not have to sit in traffic doesn't sound like that bad of a deal!

The fact is that during the day, the Metrocentre car parks are dead, it would be relatively easy for an official park and ride system to be implemented since basically everything is already in place. I would imagine it would be quite good for Intu as well, since people might just call in to pick a few things up on their way home from work.

There's already 4 park and rides to the north of Newcastle and they are carry fresh air most the day (Regent Centre / Great Park / Four Lane Ends / Northumberland Park) you can't blame Newcastle City Council for that and they can be blamed for a lot of things.

There's a common theme around here lately and a few people have basically done it on here where everyone seems to assume that everyone is going to/from Newcastle and that's your problem. They aren't.

The fact the traffic jams at rush runs from the Coast Road / Gosforth / Cowgate towards the Tyne Bridge suggest this isn't where people are coming from/going too. Infact most people are more likely travelling from Quorum / Cobalt / Regent Centre / The Ministry to Gateshead and beyond try doing those routes using buses especially Quorum / Cobalt and then you'll see why people aren't using them.

https://road.cc/content/news/175356-map-find-out-car-ownership-levels-your-neighbourhood (Click link on there can't post direct link) - The focus should be on the areas on the map which are orange / red but they're not. The bus services on the coast particular are shockingly bad in areas and you have no choice to use a car. North Whitley Bay / Marsden in particular similar story in most of washington people can't be bothered to use the local buses to connect to another bus to get to places and it's no surprise they're your high car areas.

You can put as many bike lanes through Gateshead / Gosforth but if they don't go where people want then what's the point and no-one is going to be biking from Whitley Bay / South Gateshead. Surely the point should be to put the bike lanes towards a metro station / bus station with some form of secure bike rack in place where you can change to go to your work.

(06 Sep 2019, 5:59 pm)streetdeckfan wrote

But the thing is if she is using the bus to commute to work every day, there is no way she would be buying a return ticket every day. It would be more cost effective to buy a weekly ticket as Martijn said. Then again, assuming a clean run, it'd probably cost her about £1.20 in petrol/diesel for her return journey, there is no way a bus could compete with that... or could it?

What people fail to take into account is by the time you add in all the extra expenses of running a car like buying/leasing the car, maintenance, insurance, the car does actually become quite expensive.

If for example we lease a base Vauxhall Corsa with maintenance included, that's probably going to cost around £160 a month, plus insurance that's taking it to about £200 a month just to have the car.

Then the price of the fuel for her journey on top of that would take it to about £225 a month.

If we then look at the price of a 2 Zone Network One pass, which is what she would need, that is only £86.50 for a 4 week ticket.

Less than half the cost per month for her journey, and that's assuming she only uses her car for commuting.

With a car, the more you travel, the more fuel you use, so the more it costs. With a bus pass, you can use it as much as you like and it costs the same

I've mentioned this before, what if she starts at 530am on some days - no matter how you calculate that i'd like to see her use the bus for that journey..... and maybe once or twice a week they'ed rather go further afield than tyne and wear?

(06 Sep 2019, 6:50 pm)streetdeckfan wrote

I mean, there is an unofficial park and ride system in place, that being the Metrocentre. I know a few people who just park in the Metrocentre and get the bus into Newcastle, and for me anyway paying £15 a week to not have to sit in traffic doesn't sound like that bad of a deal!

The fact is that during the day, the Metrocentre car parks are dead, it would be relatively easy for an official park and ride system to be implemented since basically everything is already in place. I would imagine it would be quite good for Intu as well, since people might just call in to pick a few things up on their way home from work.

I'd be very carefull about doing this. My mate work in M&S at metro centre and there have been tickets placed on cars when cameras have seen people parking then going for the bus/train.  It does say on the signage that you cannot use the carpark to park and ride.

(07 Sep 2019, 7:28 am)Rob44 wrote

I've mentioned this before, what if she starts at 530am on some days - no matter how you calculate that i'd like to see her use the bus for that journey..... and maybe once or twice a week they'ed rather go further afield than tyne and wear?

---

I'd be very carefull about doing this. My mate work in M&S at metro centre and there have been tickets placed on cars when cameras have seen people parking then going for the bus/train.  It does say on the signage that you cannot use the carpark to park and ride.

No park and rides then, and the ones that do exist are all North Newcastle. Someone who lives in Walker/Byker isn't going to go to Four land ends to park a car to go to town, same with Great Park.

Before the old Warner Bros cinema was pulled down Stagecoach used to run a park and ride from there on weekends I believe.