Cutting the service 1 seems a strange one to me. Services were upped to every 10 minutes to compensate for the cull of the service 12 years ago, and I can't see how going back to 15 minutes is going to help. Most buses I see in the Town Centre seem to have good loads on them. Hopefully with the timetable change, they look at improving arrivals into Middlesbrough around 9am, as Monday-Friday, there's a 45 minute gap between 0845 and 0930 arrivals. Would be nice to see a pre 1000 arrival into the Bus Station on a Sunday aswell.
Service 4 getting withdrawn doesn't really come as a shock to me. On the occassions I use it between Marina and West View to avoid travelling right into town, I think I could count on one hand the amount of passengers who use the stops on Powlett Road. Services to the Marina from Clavering could be sustained if they extended the 3 across from Bishop Cuthbert before heading back to South Fens, but looking at the timetable, the running times would be too tight, so can't see this happening.
Service 6/7 getting evening services comes across as a bit of a strange one, especially considering that the 7 runs until around 2200 as it is Sun-Thurs. I think these could be made more successful if services could be better co-ordinated with the 36 arriving from Teesside. The 7 could be achieved by putting services back 10 minutes, which on paper would leave a 5 minute connection between the services on Victoria Road. Co-ordinating with the 6 could be a bit more difficult as it would seem pointless having 2 buses in tandem between York Road and Owton Manor Lane. Possibly reducing evening 6's to every 30 minutes and having a service between Town and Owton Manor every 15 minutes could solve this though, as well as leaving adequate time for connections.
RE: Stagecoach North East: Latest News & Discussion - June 2017