(07 Jul 2019, 4:05 pm)Malarkey wroteWhy are you snowflakes complaining about the Red Kites being rebranded to X-Lines because of Go North East making the services non-stop between MetroCentre and Newcastle yet on the flip side your saying the Red Arrows/Castles Express should become X-Lines because of their express nature.
Just to note with the upcoming changes to the Red Kites these services will have a faster journey time point to point than that of the X1/X21 so of course they should fall under X-Lines, In personal opinion I don't see this as brand dilution with Eldon Square becoming a sea of Gold in the coming months, how many services in past carried "Express Link", "Northern Superliner" & "Go Xpress" branding.
If anything for me Go North East are revisiting this type of network branding and it's actually a very clever business strategy on the part of Go North East to promote their express services in order to boost passenger numbers so that less people are taking the car to work etc which is exactly what it's purpose was 15-20 years ago and it worked.
Quite clearly Go North East are investing highly into the network of services which run from Newcastle to Stanley/Consett which many passengers have been calling for since the days in which the services were branded West Durham Swift. A majority of users on here have said on numerous occasions that these services should be invested in on the fleet order predictions thread in the past. Go North East have now done so and you lot still complain.
If you look at the bigger scale of things just look at how much money Go North East have spent since 2013 on the network of services which operate from Stanley/Consett to surrounding areas, quite clearly those previous investments have brought growth over the past 6 years.
Couldn't agree more! Its nice to see the area getting new buses and advertising them.
Go North Easts only competition is the car in these areas. I live in Consett, and work in Durham/Newcastle and drive. Majority of the the week I drive, but maybe once or twice a week I have to take the bus, using the main services from Consett. The investment and changes are needed!
My only disagreement, and from a personal point of view, I do think removing the 45/46 from the estate's around Consett would be beneficial to the 'Main Route' and using the Venture services as a connection similar to how the current 30/30A works with services at Stanley. I know GNE will have taken data from these services before implementing any changes & from experience they do pick passengers up on these estates, why wouldn't they? but I would argue making the route even quicker, whilst still running along main roads and the main destination wouldn't have a negative effect on passenger numbers, with a good Venture service connecting at points and ensuring the customer isn't paying more. If anything it may encourage patronage along the route for other customers.
Would these estates lose out? Maybe, good links with Venture services would prevent it and keep journey times the same as they are.
Would the route be quicker and fit more with the promotion of an 'Express'? Yes
There are loads of pros & cons to doing this, like any decision that is made by any company you could argue all day.