(15 Nov 2022, 5:47 pm)Unber43 wrote Talking about widening roads, widening roads does not decrease journey time, it actually increases it.

(15 Nov 2022, 5:49 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Care to elaborate?

(15 Nov 2022, 6:22 pm)omnicity4659 wrote A combination of factors makes congestion worse, however I think driver education (through signs, adverts etc) telling people not to change lanes when queuing (which causes the majority of delays) and to merge effectively should be tried before adding other lanes.

(15 Nov 2022, 5:52 pm)Unber43 wrote I was shocked at first too, but actually it makes it worse in the long run, as more people are inclined to use roads when the road has been widened as they think its lower commute times so more people use it, and the congestion gets worse.
https://www.smartertransport.uk/does-building-more-roads-reduce-congestion/ https://www.wired.com/2014/06/wuwt-traffic-induced-demand/

(15 Nov 2022, 5:46 pm)Storx wrote It's nothing to do with the widening mind. It's just the last remaining part of concrete that was outside the scheme. 

Not an easy thing to get arid of hence the nighttime closures for weeks in probably the worst place to have a closure on the A19 in terms of diversions.

(15 Nov 2022, 9:03 pm)Andreos1 wrote Adding a further 2 or 3 months on to an existing project, with more inconvenience and cost than was ever needed if they did it all together.

(15 Nov 2022, 9:03 pm)Andreos1 wrote Sorry, probably wasn't clear enough. 

Residents in the area pushed for that last section to be included in the original plans.

Decision makers, in their wisdom(?), decided it wouldn't be.

So as well as the original widening and fixing the bodge job of tarmacing from the initial works - they then came back to do the southbound section of concreting (in two sections) and now the northbound (in two sections).
Once being underneath and north of the roundabout to the slips and then further north again.

Adding a further 2 or 3 months on to an existing project, with more inconvenience and cost than was ever needed if they did it all together.

(15 Nov 2022, 9:35 pm)omnicity4659 wrote Doubt that the cost would have came out of Autolink's pockets either... just more money on top of the DBFO finance agreement 

(15 Nov 2022, 9:51 pm)Storx wrote Different budgets I guess like someone said after. The ironic thing is as far as I'm aware they didn't actually lift the concrete on the widening part - they 100% widened it with concrete first and just laid tarmac on top as far as I'm aware.

Not sure why they've suddenly decided to rip it up which is costly on this part. 

Mind have to give credit though Autolink have got the A19 in good condition, less said about parts of the A1(M) which is bodged mess in places.

@gonortheast wroteGo North East @gonortheast
We are sorry but due to high passenger loads leaving Sunderland on the service 56, the 06:13 journey from Newcastle to Sunderland will run to a delay of up to 15 minutes.

(26 Nov 2022, 10:32 pm)Adrian wrote Saw this earlier today: https://twitter.com/gonortheast/status/1596380344877338624


I had a quick look on bustimes and it looks like it's came out of the depot late. Flagged on St Michaels Way at 05:02 and out of the Bus Station at 05:10, but it was 05:23 by the time it left Fawcett St, which I'm assuming is down to passenger loading.

What on earth was going on at that time in the morning? I know there's a Northern Rail strike today, but the Metro is still running a limited timetable from Sunderland, so I wouldn't have thought it would have a knock on impact to the 56.

(27 Nov 2022, 1:55 am)deanmachine wrote Could be factories? The 4am 56 we used to do on night shift used to be pretty busy with people going to work 7 days a week, even though it was withdrawn "due to low passenger numbers".

(27 Nov 2022, 9:33 am)Adrian wrote I'd assumed it may have been Nissan, but doesn't look like it stopped for any length of time there. Likewise at Concord, say if people were changing there for Amazon.

Not sure how regular an occurrence it is anyway, just thought it a tad odd for that time in the morning.

The 56s, I've noticed from the past couple weekends, seem to really be struggling with that 15 minute frequency. Every other bus I've used has been full, and the ones that haven't been, it's usually because they're trailing another bus around.

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(27 Nov 2022, 11:22 am)deanmachine wrote It's very rare I have a quiet 56 now, it does feel like it's as busy, or even busier than it was when it was every 12 minutes.

(27 Nov 2022, 11:39 am)Andreos1 wrote Similar loads with lower overheads = big smiles in GNE Towers.

The challenge for them now, is pushing it further and those squashed souls finding an alternative; maintaining the status quo and running the risk of those squashed souls finding an alternative Or increasing the frequency and hoping the numbers increase in line.

(27 Nov 2022, 8:47 pm)Rob44 wrote Been out for a few pints for a change today and watch the women at stbhmjames. Noticed 3 x1 from gateshead metro to town all only going to the galleries. Even at eldon sq the next x1 always marked as only going to Washington bus station???

(28 Nov 2022, 6:06 am)Dan wrote On Sundays, 1ph run as far as The Galleries, 1ph to Easington Lane and 1ph to Peterlee.

So it sounds like you saw the scheduled Galleries terminator (which would have been the one on the screen at Eldon Square) and the following Easington Lane and Peterlee buses were curtailed at The Galleries due to no driver being available to take them further.


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(30 Nov 2022, 2:49 pm)streetdeckfan wrote Buses in Bishop are an absolute shambles at the minute with all the roadworks going on, not sure if there's much that can be done about it though!

(30 Nov 2022, 6:21 pm)Unber43 wrote Honestly, it just seems delays are getting worse and worse.

(01 Dec 2022, 1:10 am)streetdeckfan wrote The problem with the X21 is both sets of roadworks are on the only route the bus can take, it's not as if there's any diversion options to miss it out!

(01 Dec 2022, 1:10 am)streetdeckfan wrote The problem with the X21 is both sets of roadworks are on the only route the bus can take, it's not as if there's any diversion options to miss it out!

(01 Dec 2022, 8:42 am)Jimmi wrote Well they can but it means dropping out of service [emoji6]

X21 is just impossible to keep to time currently, after some BusTimes investigation following reports on here and after seeing their Twitter, I looked to see if it was just the disruptions round Bishop/Coundon Gate affecting things and whilst it was causing delays in the region of 20 minutes, the A1(M) also played havoc, one afternoon Newcastle bound journey got stuck in traffic on the A1 having kept close to time beforehand, the result was arriving and terminating at Gateshead 40 minutes late.

I really do not wish to use the service atm as the liklihood of me being significantly delayed is too high which is putting me off wanting to go to Newcastle/Gateshead/MetroCentre entirely by bus, I've had less issues with the X12 but that's still prone to disruption too (hourly frequency is a pain to work with too).