(10 Sep 2015, 1:44 pm)BJ10VUS wrote The 1824 departure from Newcastle operates via Dunston and Metrocentre, arriving in to Blaydon at 1837, so the journey time is only 13 minutes. The longest journey appears to be a morning journey from Blaydon to Newcastle, calling at Metrocentre and Dunston, taking 19 minutes. For journeys operating via Metrocentre only, the journey time is 12 minutes. Not sure where you got 22 minutes from?
Sincere apologies... I read the timetable incorrectly....
http://www.northernrail.org/pdfs/timetab...0517/4.pdf
The rail time westbound is 12 mins. approx.
I was trying to be fair by omitting eastbound journeys, when the railway builds in some recovery time at NCL; and by comparing only Central Station to Blaydon, both as a 'proxy' for Marlborough Cres and to exclude the city centre penetration advantage that the bus gets over the train. Equally, I omitted the 'walking time' between Blaydon Station and the bus station. So the two journeys are comparable in time. But train is once every two hours, and the bus is four times an hour (every 10mins in peaks).
For rail from Blaydon to Newcastle to become an attractive alternative would require significant investment - notably in expensive track rebuilding east of Dunston to remove the 25mph speed limit, and in extra trains to provide a reasonable frequency. Then rail (in its present form) still doesn't penetrate the city centre, and Blaydon station is very much marooned on the wrong side of the A695 from Blaydon town centre - both of which could only be resolved with very, very expensive infrastructure projects.
Although this is going rather off-topic here...