I have some suggestions of my own, again I have been thinking about for a long time, so here goes.
For starters, I would like to see the end of branding, I have never been a supporter of it, but over time I have come to the belief that branding should left on the most profitable routes, have a section of each depot that concentrates solely on Flagship services, off the top of my head and through observation the busier routes are:-
Deptford...20, 35, 42, 56 and 60
Gateshead...X9/10
Washington...X1, M1
C-L-S...21
There is obvioulsy a lot of well earning routes, but those are what come to mind and stand out. With that in mind, GNE should go either all Red Northern or re-introduce the local identities that came about in the early 90's or even split GNE up into a few different companies
GNE North Durham, headquartered at C-L-S with the Winlaton, Sunderland Road and Stanley, coming under GNE ND&G
GNE Newcastle and North Tyneside, run from Percy Main also being GNE N&NT
GNE South, run from Deptford, with Washington in the GNE South area
Also bring back OK Travel in it's own right, using Peterlee, Consett, Crook and Hexham outstations to run as low cost operations...BTW, is there still outstations at Crook and Consett(not really sure if there actually was one in Consett
Give these subsidiaries some autonomy from GNE executives, an autonomous management team who can decide solely on there area they are in charge of
If that is a bad idea, then bring back Wear Buses, Go.Ahead Gateshead, Northern, VFM and Coastline etc.
Some of my service suggestion ideas are as follows
Bring back open top buses to run the coastal routes, e.g. Sunderland-South Shields and Whitley Bay to Tynemouth/North Shields, possibly connecting with the Shields Ferry, I used to love a ride on the Coastline Open Top Bus as a nipper.
Sone other ideas are pretty much extensions of current services.
I am from Murton, and we are very poorly served, some parts of Murton only have an hourly service to Durham, half hourly for Seaham and neither on Sundays or Bank Holidays and every 15 mins to Sunderland, which goes to every 20 minutes on Sundays and Bank Holidays going to 1ph on a night , even Dalton Park is quite poorly served, no more services to Hartlepool, the link to Houghton is gone, although it gets the 24 to Durham albeit the long way round(Shotton and Haswell).
My suggestion centers round Dalton Park becoming a transport hub, hopefully phase 2(the leisure development) will break ground soon and hope it could be uilised by buses...My Murton/East Durham suggestions are as follows
The Drifter
Introduce a 60A to run alongside the 60, but extending to South Shields l, stopping as such.
New 60A Parkside-Dawdon-Seaham-Coast Road-Ryhope Green-Sunderland-Roker-Seaburn-Whitburn-South Shields...60 would become every 15 minutes, with 60A every half hour to Keep the 10 minute frequency between Byron Place and Park Lane
I would introduce like to see a 61A introduced to complement the 61, 61A would goto South Shields as well and would be split at Murton Co-op, the 61 would stay as is.
New 61A...Would do an anticlockwise loop round Murton: Murton Co-op-Gray Road, Bude Square-Mann Crescent-Burnip Road-Webb Avenue-Barnes Road-Wellfield Road-Station Estate, going back the opposite way...Same as the 60A to South Shields, giving a half-hourly Service along the Coast to South Shields...An extra bus would be put on to create a 12 Minute frequency between Murton and Park Lane
I would also like connections to Newcastle and Tyneside, this could be done by extending the X1 to Dalton Park via Murton, make it one bus an hour, Easington Lane-Newcastle would become a 12 minute frequency, 10 for Hetton and Houghton, either that, or extend the X3 or X36 to Dalton Park to come through Seaham, terminating at Dalton Park
Bring either X7, X9 or X10 into Dalton Park, opening links to Teesside.
Bring a 9A in and have the 9/9A every 20 minutes from Park Lane, and have 9A extended in both directions, 9 as it is now
New 9A Dalton Park-Ryhope-Sunderland-The Boldons-Restless Roundabout-Tyne Tunnel-North Shields-Tynemouth-Cullercoats-Whitley Bay.
If none of that would, bring in a Murton Station-Newcastle Service that is East Durham Operated which would go Station Estate-Wellfield Road-Barnes Road-Webb Avenue-Bude Square-Woods Terrace-Dalton Park-Fast Heworth-Gateshead and Newcastle...
I know these suggestions are probably pie in the sky, but it is a service suggestion thread after all
If you read this far, thanks for your patience
