(21 Nov 2019, 9:37 pm)streetdeckfan wrote It may look worse, but in reality GNE have so many buses between Newcastle and Gateshead that changing buses to go the extra few stops doesn't take that much time.

I know for Arriva in Durham, it's often not possible to terminate a bus early as most of them come from completely different directions, often sharing only 1 or two stops at most, certainly not an entire interchange. Whereas with GNE, pretty much all southbound services from Newcastle go via Gateshead, with Westbound services going via Metrocentre, so it's relatively easy to change.

I know when the X21 was terminated early at Gateshead, I was able to just catch the X1 to Gateshead and connect with the X21. Granted I have my monthly pass so if you were paying individually for a ticket it may have been more difficult, but even with the very short notice given by GNE over Twitter, it was possible.

It's alright going into Newcastle but not so much the other way. If I was standing at the High Level Bridge, Market Street or Newgate Street in the rain at 7pm in the middle of winter without any idea that the bus I'm waiting for has been terminated at Gateshead and the next one isn't coming for 30 minutes I'd be less than amused. Not to mention drivers not knowing why I'm getting on with a return on different bus route etc.

I'd rather sit on one of the ex Varios at Blyth for an hour than wait for 30 minutes in the rain - if you've never been on one of those it's not something you would've wanted think the opposite of GNE's new buses.