(30 Nov 2016, 9:49 pm)omnicity4659 wrote These are a very bad idea. Whoever thought these ridiculous changes up should use the services at their peak.
- 35/35A. Passengers levels on these services fluctuate. Buses are generally full and passengers refused boarding at various times throughout the day, the other times it's dead. This is with a 15 minute frequency. If they're cutting the frequency, at least have the decency to have a fully double deck allocation. The service is also heavily used by wheelchair and pushchair users, my main concern is that older double deck vehicles at Ashington have 1 space for both types of users. There is generally little or no luggage space to place folded pushchairs.
- 494. I've used this service to help route learn drivers, heavy loadings from both DSS sites in Longbenton, standing loads in a StreetLite. I assume that the 52 won't call into the DSS sites? If not, very bad decision and what's the point of extending the 52 in the first place when they've basically abandoned their main customers.
- X20/X21/X22. No doubt more misery to come, I believe that the evening and Sunday timings are being swapped (ie from Ash xx:16 becomes X21, xx:46 becomes X22), which might see day times revised too. I see that the X20 is having a route change, Arriva seen that they actually picked passengers up on Hawthorn Road in Ashington and reverting back to it? Or some pointless route change in Alnwick?
Not really welcoming changes, the 35 really needed some extra buses to help with having a longer layover each end of the route and a frequency upgrade, the 35 has seen a growth in passenger numbers since the 28th October 2013. Do we really deserve a reduced service with a pointless extension to Woodhorn to keep that miserable moaning git happy?!
Definitely agree with your points on the 35, unless they have a plan nobody on here knows about to get rid of the Streetlites, and get in more double deck vehicles? Not too sure where they'd come from like.
Regarding the X21/22 timings, they had it running like clockwork prior to those September 2012 changes (when they decided running the X22 in a loop around Bedlington, at the time serving zero stops for half of it). I used the X21 daily at the time, as I had since September 2011, and the change in punctuality was unbelievable. Made worse by the withdrawal of Olympians around the same time, it must be said.
I'd welcome the 52 changes if they were an all day thing, as it would help connect SE Northumberland even more, and provide more links, while competing with the seemingly increasingly unreliable 19. However they just seem like a bit of an after thought.