(21 Sep 2013, 2:37 pm)Daniel wrote From a personal point of view, I think the Sunderland network, on the whole, is very good. Most services have a 10 minute frequency Monday to Saturday, and most services start early and finish late (which can't always be said about competition in certain areas). Since last year, we've had a 20 minute frequency on the core services in Sunderland's network also. Again, this can't always be said about competition in certain areas.

What I do dislike is that there are opportunities in the current network that Stagecoach could use to their benefit. I see competition between the likes of Go North East and Arriva North East, with services being timed ahead of others etc.
Stagecoach seemingly keep everyone sweet and keep to their own network, making very few changes.
A more recent change that springs to mind is the 23 to Seaburn on Sundays. Some would say that Seaburn really doesn't need a higher frequency on Sundays, but I think it provides excellent links. Passengers can have a through route all the way to Seaburn if travelling from the likes of Thorney Close, whereas before they would have had to get off in town and jump on an E service.
I think more changes like the above could really work well, but things need to be trialled. Go North East regularly have services on trial for six months before making their mind up whether a change to a service is commercially viable or not, and I wish Stagecoach would also do something similar.

Of course it's not all that long ago that Sunderland did have a direct bus from Thorney Close to Seaburn every day of the week rather than just Sundays - until the 24 was axed in favour of an increased frequency on the 23... I know there's still the 18/19 Mon-Sat that do provide some links, but given the relative infrequency and magical mystery tour routing (and therefore journey time) of those services, they don't provide a viable link in my opinion.

Although GNE do it more often and more notably - Stagecoach are also guilty of cutting direct links in favour of increased frequency on a smaller number of routes, necessitating a change of buses. Stagecoach just tend to do it all in one go with a network reorganisation every 5-10 years, rather than the bimonthly tinkering approach GNE seem to prefer.