(02 Mar 2026, 5:45 pm)Nerd4321 wrote Results are out 

https://www.nexus.org.uk/consultation

Few changes made but all available to read

I’m surprised they’ve done a U turn and kept the M71. I see it constantly daily as it drives past my house and it’s not rare to see it completely empty.

(02 Mar 2026, 9:25 pm)ReDemPTiion wrote I’m surprised they’ve done a U turn and kept the M71. I see it constantly daily as it drives past my house and it’s not rare to see it completely empty.

Passenger numbers do appear to be low on the M71 whenever I see it, but the 6 is only hourly and the M71 is the only bus into Tesco car park apart from the free Tesco bus, which provides 1 return journey on Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri, between Newbiggin Hall and Kingston Park Tesco. 

Very surprised to see Nexus keep it running for 1 more year though. Not sure how many years the M71 has been running. It will likely be withdrawn next year. Disappointing they couldn't fund some improvements on the free services instead (and possibly make them not free).

(02 Mar 2026, 10:01 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote Passenger numbers do appear to be low on the M71 whenever I see it, but the 6 is only hourly and the M71 is the only bus into Tesco car park apart from the free Tesco bus, which provides 1 return journey on Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri, between Newbiggin Hall and Kingston Park Tesco. 

How many other supermarkets have a bus service running into their carparks though?  Given there are entire housing estates without bus services running through them I'm not sure why one random supermarket (one already served by a Metro and various normal bus services stopping around 300m away, at that) should warrant a publicly funded service.

(Yesterday, 12:56 am)stagecoachbusdepot wrote How many other supermarkets have a bus service running into their carparks though?  Given there are entire housing estates without bus services running through them I'm not sure why one random supermarket (one already served by a Metro and various normal bus services stopping around 300m away, at that) should warrant a publicly funded service.

Well quite a few did before the pandemic.

Admittedly it doesn't have to go into the car park, and given Tesco don't fund it, operating it alongside the other bus routes would make sense. Given Newbiggin Hall only has an hourly link with the 6 and the free bus offering a return journey once a day (except Wednesday and weekends) there is a possible need for an hourly M71 at least, to offer a combined 30 minute frequency with the 6. Obviously given the low passenger numbers, perhaps there isn't. Bizarrely, the 71A/M71 has been around for a number of years (except when it was merged with the 342).

Valid point on housing estates not having a bus service. Not sure why this particular Tesco has the M71 and T1/T2/T3 operating into the car park (obviously Tesco fund the free buses, which is odd given how many buses serve Kingston Park). Likely next year will see off the M71, with the hourly 6 providing the link for the small number of customers.

(Yesterday, 12:56 am)stagecoachbusdepot wrote How many other supermarkets have a bus service running into their carparks though?  Given there are entire housing estates without bus services running through them I'm not sure why one random supermarket (one already served by a Metro and various normal bus services stopping around 300m away, at that) should warrant a publicly funded service.

SAainsburys team valley?

(Yesterday, 10:46 am)Rob44 wrote Sainsburys Team Valley?

Isn't that free? Funded by Sainsbury's? Thought of that one, but didn't mention it as I'm not familiar with it and whether or not it actually goes into the car park.

imo if there's so much demand for the Kingston Park links, the 6 should be upped in frequency instead, rather than duplicating it. It wouldn't be such an issue if the 6 was a thriving bus route with a frequent day time and at least hourly Sunday and Evening service - but it's the polar opposite.

(Yesterday, 11:54 am)Storx wrote imo if there's so much demand for the Kingston Park links, the 6 should be upped in frequency instead, rather than duplicating it. It wouldn't be such an issue if the 6 was a thriving bus route with a frequent day time and at least hourly Sunday and Evening service - but it's the polar opposite.

I don't think so much demand for the Kingston Park links does exist. Hence the M71 being proposed for withdrawal and the free bus only running between 10am and 2pm, four days a week. Both appear to have very low passenger numbers. As the Newbiggin Hall route is 1 return trip, a few people travel on that. 

The 6 is a complicated route, going between 2 completely different things in the Metrocentre and the Freeman, and interworking with the 7 for a combined 2bph, but that doesn't go to Kingston Park, which leaves that with a hourly service. Usually hourly services are unusable really. Not sure where the demand for Kingston Park comes from, if there is any.

Most likely the 6 would be more frequent if they cut the route somewhere and possibly separated it from the 7. 

For clarification, I was in favour of the M71 being withdrawn. Just put forward a possible explanation for why it was kept for another year. Guess it will go next March.

(Yesterday, 12:56 am)stagecoachbusdepot wrote How many other supermarkets have a bus service running into their carparks though?  Given there are entire housing estates without bus services running through them I'm not sure why one random supermarket (one already served by a Metro and various normal bus services stopping around 300m away, at that) should warrant a publicly funded service.

Off the top of my head you have you have Jarrow Morrisons,  Tesco Catterick Garrison, Sainsbury’s Arnison Centre, Ikea Gateshead, Berwick Hills Morrisons

(Yesterday, 12:20 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote I don't think so much demand for the Kingston Park links does exist. Hence the M71 being proposed for withdrawal and the free bus only running between 10am and 2pm, four days a week. Both appear to have very low passenger numbers. As the Newbiggin Hall route is 1 return trip, a few people travel on that. 

The 6 is a complicated route, going between 2 completely different things in the Metrocentre and the Freeman, and interworking with the 7 for a combined 2bph, but that doesn't go to Kingston Park, which leaves that with a hourly service. Usually hourly services are unusable really. Not sure where the demand for Kingston Park comes from, if there is any.

Most likely the 6 would be more frequent if they cut the route somewhere and possibly separated it from the 7. 

For clarification, I was in favour of the M71 being withdrawn. Just put forward a possible explanation for why it was kept for another year. Guess it will go next March.

Aye that's fair, not going to lie I always think the route should be cut in half with two services:

6/6A: Kingston Park Loop - Walker
7/7A: Kingston Park Loop - Metrocentre

Like this:


With the 18 being part of it aswell, and them running around the loop in each direction both hourly and every 30 minutes the rest of the route. 

Would tidy it up a bit as it's a bit of a route around the world in the Blakelaw area and realistically no-one is going end to end. Would open some new links like Byker to Gosforth and Kenton to Kingston Park aswell. 

What you do with the rest of the 18 I don't know, extend the 653 through maybe? It would open up new links in the Benton area through to Wallsend which don't exist currently.

(Yesterday, 1:06 pm)Storx wrote Aye that's fair, not going to lie I always think the route should be cut in half with two services:

6/6A: Kingston Park Loop - Walker
7/7A: Kingston Park Loop - Metrocentre

Like this:


With the 18 being part of it aswell, and them running around the loop in each direction both hourly and every 30 minutes the rest of the route. 

Would tidy it up a bit as it's a bit of a route around the world in the Blakelaw area and realistically no-one is going end to end. Would open some new links like Byker to Gosforth and Kenton to Kingston Park aswell. 

What you do with the rest of the 18 I don't know, extend the 653 through maybe? It would open up new links in the Benton area through to Wallsend which don't exist currently.

I actually like the sound of all that. Northstar would be the ideal operator, with the X22/X43 at the Metrocentre and the 18 at Benton/Walker from later this month.

Splitting the services in half would massively improve reliability. Be interesting to know if anyone does go end-to-end, I would assume not with the current frequency and unreliablity. Otherwise, potentially customers would go to/from the Metrocentre before or after their appointment.

Kingston Park is quite congested, so definitely a good place to split the route and operate a loop around the area.

(Yesterday, 1:22 pm)OrangeArrow49 wrote I actually like the sound of all that. Northstar would be the ideal operator, with the X22/X43 at the Metrocentre and the 18 at Benton/Walker from later this month.

Splitting the services in half would massively improve reliability. Be interesting to know if anyone does go end-to-end, I would assume not with the current frequency and unreliablity. Otherwise, potentially customers would go to/from the Metrocentre before or after their appointment.

Kingston Park is quite congested, so definitely a good place to split the route and operate a loop around the area.

Yeah agreed, mind I wouldn't be surprised if you worked with Stagecoach whether they would take it on partially commercial anyway.

Can't see anyone really going end to end though, even 2/3 of the route to the end is neglible timewise by changing buses; ie getting the 62/63 from West Denton then connecting to the 37/38 for the Freeman or 30/31/3543/44/45/X10/X11... for Gosforth. It's not like the corridors aren't frequent enough for easy changes tbh. The fact they're all pretty much 10 minute+ the frequencies outweigh potentially having to wait 20 minutes for the next 6/7 aswell.

This forum is consistent for trying to find problems to fit their hypothetical solutions. As someone who does use the 6/7, I can confirm there are plenty of people who travel from, say, West Denton to the Freeman. Hub and spoke models have been proven to be a false economy. We should have more orbital routes, not less. There’s no need to force everyone to change buses in the city centre (or indeed the proposed ‘Kingston Park loop’), which invariably both takes longer and is more expensive.

I received an email back of nexus today as I asked about the 19A not being a thing. The response was that a few people wanted the change yet it seems to be most people still want it as the 19

However at the bottom of the email. This sentence made me laugh

"some argued that the trips to/from Cramlington should be the 19, whilst others argued that the trips to/from Killingworth should be the 19)."

(Yesterday, 11:03 am)OrangeArrow49 wrote Isn't that free? Funded by Sainsbury's? Thought of that one, but didn't mention it as I'm not familiar with it and whether or not it actually goes into the car park.

Wildly off topic but…

Yes it is, part of a very weird wildly historic planning quirk when Sainsbury’s on the valley was Presto then Safeway, then briefly Morrisons. 

As part of the Morrisons buyout of Safeway. Sainsbury’s bought a host of Morrisons/safeway/presto that morrisons were forced to sell and closed some (like wrekenton) and expanded others (like the valley) 

As part of wrekentons closure, they had to provide a bus service. Which seems wild now as Wrekenton has 3 supermarkets and a very regular service to Galleries (6 supermarkets) and Gateshead (2)

(Yesterday, 12:33 pm)220631612 wrote Off the top of my head you have you have Jarrow Morrisons,  Tesco Catterick Garrison, Sainsbury’s Arnison Centre, Ikea Gateshead, Berwick Hills Morrisons

I'm sure South Bank Asda had a dedicated service until fairly recently. 
Boldon Asda also had one years ago when it first opened. Can remember Olympians (presumably spare between school runs), carting around fresh air.

(Yesterday, 10:01 pm)Andreos1 wrote I'm sure South Bank Asda had a dedicated service until fairly recently. 
Boldon Asda also had one years ago when it first opened. Can remember Olympians (presumably spare between school runs), carting around fresh air.

Have a feeling that all ASDA stores back then used to have a bus, I know Blyth definitely did, Olympians aswell and so did Byker when it opened as they had the ASDA branded Solo. 

Speaking of supermarket buses, there's the GNE 99 which is paid by Nexus; I don't really know why it exists now when the 599 does the same thing pretty much tbh.

(Yesterday, 10:01 pm)Andreos1 wrote I'm sure South Bank Asda had a dedicated service until fairly recently. 
Boldon Asda also had one years ago when it first opened. Can remember Olympians (presumably spare between school runs), carting around fresh air.

Yeah Boldon ASDA had 5 Free Bus Services numbered A1 to A5. 3 of the services used Double Deckers (Spectras, Olympians) whilst the other 2 used Single Deckers (mainly Leyland National Mk2).

Fun fact with Boldon ASDA free bus, is that for a school project for my GNVQ Computer Designwork in 2002/2003. I created my own version of the Boldon ASDA bus timetable based on an A4 timetable sheet I had gotten from Asda. Unfortunatley my leaflet was too good that the teacher thought it was the real thing and discarded it asking where my version was. Annoyingly I ended up failing the GNVQ course because they threw away the various leaflets I had designed on my own.


With regards to "Free Supermarket Buses" these are ones I've photoed in the North East (that I can remember). There is others like South Bank ASDA which I didn't get around to photographing or from when before I had a decent camera like the Boldon ASDA free buses.
Metrocentre ASDA had free buses running into Western Gateshead and Prudhoe. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...2191245664
Plus the shuttle (Cost 10p) between Metrocentre Bus Station and the Store ran by Low Fell (replaced by the S1). https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...6562624891 and 
Gateshead Tesco had one ran by Gateshead Central which ran into the underground car park (can't be many Free Shopping Buses that did that). https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...0516325777
Consett Tesco had one running to various places, originally ran by Stanley Travel before passing to Go North East. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...1134936285
Bishop Auckland had two free buses from the bus station, one linking ASDA - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...2266028613
And then when Tesco opened at Tindale Crescent, had one from there too - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...1450077085
Billingham Tesco - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...0516993763+
Byker ASDA had 3 routes, ran by Phoenix then GNE -  https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...3137686333
Sainsbury's Whitby - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...2358640573
Kingston Park Tesco (as mentioned many times) - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...6354675700
Team Valley Safeway / Sainsbury's - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...6562625001

Some Supermarkets did have dedicated bus stops within the car parks for service buses especially when operators ran lots of minibuses that could squeeze into the car parks.
Some that are now defunct or not used are Byker ASDA, Cramlington ASDA, Benton ASDA / Hypermarket, West Monkseaton Sainsbury's, Boldon ASDA (Stagecoach used it for a little bit for the 5), Bebside ASDA, Tesco Stockton (Unless it's been used by Flex).

Anyway I've whittered on enough.