(26 Jun 2016, 6:37 pm)biglugs@yahoo.com wrote 8. Castleside - consett - Flint hill - Annifield plain - stanley - beamish - chester le street - washington art centre - washington - waterview park - casletown - sunderland.
This service will join the 8 and 16 together using a pvr of 11.
5284 - 92 + 5333-35. These vehicles will feature wifi and provide a comfortable ride.
5336 will be spare.
16. Stanley - Sacriston - durham.
This service will be reduced to every 30 minutes using a pvr of 4. ( 5395- 98).
5399 - 5407. Used for the 78 given a new name with 5401 being in the brand with 5408 red.
Vehicles to form the x7 allocation will come from this service suggestion.
66. Metrocentre - all stops to metrocentre.
This service will operate a 10 minute frequency using 4x new double deck vehicles allowing 5391-94 to move to Peterlee for the x7.
Why fix things that aren't broken?
The Coast & Country services seem to manage fine as they do with Streetlites, and the Durham Diamond likewise with the Citaros (minus the reliability problems that they're plagued with). The latter services saw massive changes only last October to help with reliability issues with the Stanley-based services. The 8/78 saw new buses in May last year, with customers reaping the benefits that the Streetlites give them. Why remove the Streetlites as the stock for the 8, with passengers expecting the added luxuries that come with said stock, and put Citaros in their place? I hope you'd be able to source the investment for the Citaros to have their seats re-trimmed at the least, and be able to provide a business case to at least make the ''comfortable ride'' come close to the Streetlites for customers.
Why reduce the Stanley-Durham corridor to every 30 minutes? It's a busy section of the 16/16A, with standees at times. Why rebrand the 78? Why even separate the 8/78 from each other?
As for 5391-5394 on the X7. Goodness me.