(15 Jul 2015, 5:41 pm)aureolin wrote It'd actually left the science site 3 early, which was part of the problem.
But yeah, I'd actually say the roads are a lot quieter than your normal weekday outside of uni term time. I get what you're saying about timing points, but there's got to be a level of common sense somewhere. A bus passing stops 8-10 minutes early, because it's not a timing point, is still going to result in a dissatisfied customer. Yet I appreciate that waiting at every single stop would end up with the same result!
Happens on our 5's too.... school holidays will regularly see us arriving in Middlesbrough upto 10-12 minutes early, depending on how long you wait in North Ormesby (if you stuck to timetable it would be upto 6-7 mins...) - it's hard to justify sitting there when everyone just wants to be in town, 5 minutes down the road.
I accept that this is different with the onward service to Newcastle though. It's a hard balance to strike when traffic levels are/can be so variable. It may turn out that the addition of extra resources for the bridge work has been a huge waste of time but I guess you can't win either way.