Have found out following contacting Nexus, that there are plans waiting to be finalised to extend service 700 along Roker Baths Road via Roker Park to Seaburn for this summer, which will essentially be a replacement for service 18 along that section, although this is only to be for the summer, with no plans for an all-year round service.
And aside from that, it doesn't look like there will any additional bus provision to replace service 18, with Nexus reiterating; "we are not in a position to fund/subsidise alternatives where viable links are otherwise available through interchange." So anything simple like tweaking an existing service, very unlikely to happen...
Surely it would make sense to divert the 99 to Seaburn opposed to Hylton Castle & Castletown, especially seeing as they already have the 599 & many other services in that area at the moment. Simple timetable tweaks, even making the service run every 70 minutes to allow better reliability & flexibility, alike they did with the 516 when it had timekeeping issues, would mean the service & important links would still be there for those who need the service...
