(12 Feb 2020, 9:40 am)streetdeckfan wrote It doesn't have anything to do with competition, it's the lack of passengers on those routes.
If there was competition on those routes, there would be no need to subsidise them as the competitor would take over when one of them drops out.

Without knowing too much about the routes around that area, I will agree with what you said about the services not going anywhere useful. It seem to me like all these estate routes are just being tacked on to other similar routes rather than being integrated into ones that visit actual places.

The problem is the competition results in the lack of action by anyone which results in a network that never gets changed. If you didn't have GNE and Arriva both battling for the 308/309 you could use those buses and split them out at the coast and pick up other areas and potentially make the subsidised routes more profitable. Instead you've got 7 buses an hour doing one bus route with estates half a mile with nothing at all.

If you only had one operator you could start splitting them up a bit like the X45/46 does in Consett, X10/11 in Blyth or X21/22 in Bedlington and Ashington.

Realistically something like this for North of the Coast Road.

Route 1: 308 Bus Route (30 Mins)
Route 2: 309 Bus Route (30 Mins) - Combined 15 Minute Between South Beach -> North Tyneside Hospital
Route 3: 308 To Billy Mill -> Whitehouse Lane -> Devon Road -> Rake Lane -> Marsden -> Whitley (30 Mins)
Route 4: 309 To Cobalt -> 42/42A Route to New York -> Rake Lane -> Monkseaton -> Whitley Bay (30 Mins)

Extend the 51A from West Allotment to Whitley via the W1 route including the W3 part into the Estate.
Extend the 306 or 1 to Briardene (30 Mins)

That's all of Whitley's subsidised services in bus routes that actually take people places but it'll never happen when you have both GNE and Arriva competing and that's where you lose out. Plus you get loads of new links like Wellfield to Newcastle, Benton Asda and Shiremoor Metro, Monkseaton to Newcastle, Shiremoor, Benton Asda and Cobalt. Marsden and Whitehouse Lane / Devon Road to Newcastle, Silverlink and Rake Lane, Briardene to Tynemouth, Cullercoats and North Shields etc.