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(04 Apr 2025, 2:03 pm)F114TML wrote Hi
The way Lady Kim is going on, no.
She says it's a vital link but is just using it to bash Stagecoach and not said anything I can see about maintaining it.
(04 Apr 2025, 6:35 pm)Michael wrote Varies event routes from the 16th-18th May, has appeared
PB0002404/452
New BUSWAYS TRAVEL SERVICES LTD LS3 (LS3) Heaton, Warwick Street Heaton, Warwick Street
PB0002404/451
New BUSWAYS TRAVEL SERVICES LTD LS2 (LS2) Shipley Art Gallery Shipley Art Gallery
PB0002404/453
New BUSWAYS TRAVEL SERVICES LTD CC1 (CC1, CC1) Four Lane Ends Interchange Newcastle Racecourse
PB0002404/454
New BUSWAYS TRAVEL SERVICES LTD CC2 (CC2) Great Park Newcastle Racecourse
PB0002404/450
New BUSWAYS TRAVEL SERVICES LTD LS1 (LS1) Newcastle Discovery Museum Newcastle Discovery Museum
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PB0002404/428
Variation BUSWAYS TRAVEL SERVICES LTD 452 (452) Sunderland Round Robin St Roberts RC Academy
PB0002404/21
Variation BUSWAYS TRAVEL SERVICES LTD 1 (2) South Shields Town Centre Biddick Hall Estate
PB0002404/439
Variation BUSWAYS TRAVEL SERVICES LTD 960 (960) South Shields Interchange Waterview
(04 Apr 2025, 3:10 pm)Economic505 wrote Hopefully drawing attention to the cuts may force SNE to back down. They butchered the service over the years.
(04 Apr 2025, 6:57 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote Interesting there's 3 LS routes this year. Presumably will be closed top sadly.
(06 Apr 2025, 8:36 am)DeltaMan wrote Having read the BBc article this morning...All this begs the question....what on earth is the point of the Enhanced Partnership?
I can't help but feel NECA are great at typing words in to Microsoft Word and absolutely useless when they actually have to do something. Ominous
(06 Apr 2025, 2:35 pm)Economic505 wrote They need to skip the consultation stage. Just get on with it . Things move at a snails pace in this country.
(06 Apr 2025, 2:45 pm)DeltaMan wrote Nope. Hard disagree on this. I don't like the direction of travel of the status quo, but NECA has to prove they are competent when getting thier hands dirty, rather than just being able to type up swanky policy papers - otherwise the cost to use, the tax payer - will be massive if they get thier sums wrong, Like QCS!
(06 Apr 2025, 3:52 pm)Storx wrote Definitely agree here, sick of seeing stuff like this 18 being moaned about, let's be blunt it's an absolute ridiculous route, as it is goes from no-where to no-where, then does a 270 degree at Seaburn to top off the stupidity of the route.
If we had councillors funding every ridiculous route like it then it'll be bleeding money and the money has to come from somewhere and it certainly won't be coming from central government.
There's clearly a school bus needed but the best way to deal with this would be extend the GNE 62 at both ends and do a full loop, similar to: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/54.89503...25!1m0!3e0
It'd literally solve most the problems and create an actual useful through route, creating some key links to the hospital and or Doxford Park imo. Should be only 1 PVR aswell.
(06 Apr 2025, 3:52 pm)Storx wrote Definitely agree here, sick of seeing stuff like this 18 being moaned about, let's be blunt it's an absolute ridiculous route, as it is goes from no-where to no-where, then does a 270 degree at Seaburn to top off the stupidity of the route.
If we had councillors funding every ridiculous route like it then it'll be bleeding money and the money has to come from somewhere and it certainly won't be coming from central government.
There's clearly a school bus needed but the best way to deal with this would be extend the GNE 62 at both ends and do a full loop, similar to: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/54.89503...25!1m0!3e0
It'd literally solve most the problems and create an actual useful through route, creating some key links to the hospital and or Doxford Park imo. Should be only 1 PVR aswell.
(06 Apr 2025, 4:46 pm)Michael wrote I agree, soon as they put it via Pennywell etc, dropped to hourly, the route was doomed, just surprised it took them so long to drop the route, if people used it, it wouldn't be going....
Probs won't even be used though, thats the problem, would just be another waste of council money.
(06 Apr 2025, 7:54 pm)Storx wrote Aye exactly, worrying times if the NECA won't drop routes which aren't profitable and clearly don't work. It's just going to result in the exact same problems as now where the network doesn't work for today and everyone is scared to make real changes because the councillors will be up in arms because 1 person uses the route whereas 10 other people in the same town are using a car because that one vocal person needs his bus to some obscure place.
Yeah you're probably right, but least they're trying something new. If it doesn't work then it goes, as there's no demand and people will just have to deal with it.
(06 Apr 2025, 10:18 pm)Michael wrote I mean, I used the 18 alot between Jan and Feb but haven't since then however when I did use it, i go on at around 11am (weekday) and it maybe picked up between 4 or 5 people between Springwell and Queen Alex bridge.
Thats the exact problem with all the routes in Sunderland, half of them are just a waste and soon as the companies want to do changes the council/locals etc kick off saying "i need the service" but I bet half of them don't even use the route.
Would be interesting if it became a contract service though and have someone other than Stagecoach run it.
The cuts does mean Sunderland are likely to lose more buses, probs the ADL E200.
I mean you're right, its different and new, look how decent the 599 is doing since its launch.
(06 Apr 2025, 10:46 pm)Storx wrote Yeah definitely, personally I think it's a shame that Stagecoach and NECA haven't worked together as it seems like they've just ignored Stagecoach's warnings about profits.
Working together they could easily done something like splitting the 8 at Pennywell and having one bus an hour doing the 18 to Gilley Law and the other still going to South Hylton and rerouting the 99 to Seaburn instead of Castletown since the 599 already exists doing it.
Would've been a subsidy for 1 bus and actually made one of the routes (99) actually useful. The 8 clearly isn't doing well either so would've killed two birds with one stone and the 18 doesn't run on a Sunday or evenings anyway so there's no issues there either.
(06 Apr 2025, 11:17 pm)Michael wrote Could do one massive loop service.....
99 - Hourly - Monday to Saturday - 7am till 6pm -
Sunderland - Roker - Seaburn - Fulwell - Southwick - Hylton Castle - Castletown - Hylton Retail Park - Pallion - Hospital - Barnes Park - Gilley Law - Thorney Close - Grindon - Pennywell ALDI - Grindon - Pennywell - Pallion - Hylton Retail Park - Castletown - Hylton Castle - Southwick - Fulwell - Seaburn - Roker - Sunderland.
I mean it is a long route and probs would never happen and not even sure how long it would take etc
Maybe take a risk on it?, you never know.
(06 Apr 2025, 4:46 pm)No Michael wrote I agree, soon as they put it via Pennywell etc, dropped to hourly, the route was doomed, just surprised it took them so long to drop the route, if people used it, it wouldn't be going....
Probs won't even be used though, thats the problem, would just be another waste of council money.
(Yesterday, 7:25 am)Storx wrote Aye could do. See personally I think I'd try and integrate the 18 from Seaburn to Sunderland into a new E route so you'd have something like
E1: 18 from Sunderland to Seaburn, current E1
E2: No Changes
E6: No Changes
New Route: Current E1 running direct via Coast Road in South Shields.
It would be a good use of BSIP funds and would give areas which are currently poorly served and enhance the Sunderland to Roker and South Shields Funfair to South Shields frequencies which really struggle in the Summer. The new route would be ideal for open top buses aswell.
You've got 5 minutes or so to play around with the new route if there was a little diversion you could think of. I'm unsure what though.
(Yesterday, 7:35 am)Economic505 wrote Park Avenue is currently served by the 18. Not sure how that could be fitted into an enhanced E1. However, a frequency increase would be welcome.
(Yesterday, 7:25 am)Storx wrote Aye could do. See personally I think I'd try and integrate the 18 from Seaburn to Sunderland into a new E route so you'd have something like
E1: 18 from Sunderland to Seaburn, current E1
E2: No Changes
E6: No Changes
New Route: Current E1 running direct via Coast Road in South Shields.
It would be a good use of BSIP funds and would give areas which are currently poorly served and enhance the Sunderland to Roker and South Shields Funfair to South Shields frequencies which really struggle in the Summer. The new route would be ideal for open top buses aswell.
You've got 5 minutes or so to play around with the new route if there was a little diversion you could think of. I'm unsure what though.
(04 Apr 2025, 2:03 pm)F114TML wrote The way Lady Kim is going on, no.
She says it's a vital link but is just using it to bash Stagecoach and not said anything I can see about maintaining it.
(Yesterday, 5:01 pm)logidoodah wrote You see, what I would do would be to keep the E's as combined every 10 mins (as otherwise, the frequency of Whitburn would be stupidly frequent). I would do this instead...
E1 - no change
E2 - no change
E6 - Routed through Roker park & park ave
19/20 - Pennywell to Seaburn
To not allow frequency reductions and make clean headways between buses I would extend the 20 onto the nothern half of the 23 and also decrease it to every 20 mins. I would then also create a route 19 which follows the 20 in its entirity but when it gets to Fulwell turns right to go up Dykelands rd (to replace the E6 here). Dene Estate loop would be reduced by 1 bph but has the E2, 19 and (GNE) 24 surrounding it. This change keeps Fulwell Rd at 6 bph but with 10 min evenly spaced frequency and enables there to be spaced timings in between the 10/11 (enabling buses to not bunny hop each other all the way along Hylton Road) and creates a 5 min frequency [headway with 4x 20min freq routes].
This also allows and increase in bph for Dykelands Road by 1, Hylton Rd by 1, and Park Ave by 1.
Heck to replace the northern end of the 18 you could extend the 558 to Leechmere ASDA or Park Lane (via Pallion) with the 599 going to Leechmere...lots of options
