L483YVK wroteArriva
306 extension to Whitley Bay
*Pointless, could just go to Tynemouth to improve reliability. Marden could be served by extended 51A Mon-Sat.
** It's still an enhancement, more places example from Blyth / Cramlington who want to travel through have an option on day tickets.
New Blyth peak expresses
* Should these not be running all day? X8 needs split in Cramlington on that note, takes far too long to Newcastle for people in Bebside & Cowpen.
** Maybe but it's still an improvement them existing they didn't exist before hand.
Experimented with later buses on X10/X11 (didn't work)
* Could've easily created a 43E out of this to make it viable but just came up with excuses when I contacted them. They later did the same with the 308
** It was more the inward journey that was the problem, it carried fresh air.
Not many new buses recently bar the few for X21/X22 but nothing downgraded.
* No new buses since, Blyth fleet needs replacing soon and Jesmond is a joke!
** They maybe old but GNE's Percy Main's depot aren't particularly much newer on the main which does North Tyneside.
No big cuts to services in past 5
Stagecoach (Not really their area).
Extended 22 and 1 to Cobalt
* Fair enough
Seaside bus in North Tyneside
* Fair enough
GoNorthEast
Extended the 1 to Metro Centre via the world but cut Kibblesworth in the process.
* Only ran during evenings
** My mistake there.
Extended 11 to Newcastle (didn't work).
* Was an oddball as was the 57, better just having a streamlined 1 & 1A service.
Cut 309/10 to every 20 minutes.
* Makes sense particularly outside of peaks and won't be long before Arriva follow suit. GNE still run the 309 slightly more frequently to and from Cobalt during peaks as well as X39.
** It's a cut to North Tyneside / SE Northumberland. Someone in South Beach or Verne Road doesn't care about the X39 not to mention the buses they lost to actually for these services in the past (The Centurion). Monkseaton doesn't have a bus to Newcastle at all now but that's out the 5 year window I said. Looking back earlier it's even worse.
Cut 9 from Sunderland to South Shields (5) which then got cut altogether.
* Fair enough
Scrapped across town links with 58.
* Most prefer Haymarket and as mentioned before, new 311 coordinates better with 309 & 310 as well as extra capacity.
** Haymarket true, it's still a link lost.
No new buses but Cobalt's refurbished.
* And to a high standard compared to the makeshift replacements the 308 got in exchange for the Hybrids.
Indigo / Little Coasters downgraded buses.
40/41/42/42A is about to get butchered - again.
11/19/40/41/42/42A only day time services since they've lost the night subsidies.
* Fair enough
309 last bus getting earlier and earlier.
* 2145 extended to Blyth in 2016
* Mon-Sat 1925 extended to Blyth in 2016
* New 1905 journey on Saturdays formed in 2016
* 2245 now runs on Sundays too
* Improved 20 min service between Newcastle and Battle Hill during evenings
* 2255 Blyth to New York re-introduced Mon-Sat and 2155 Sun & BH
* Extra evening running time & layover to improve reliability
Commented above with ** remember these are from a North Tyneside / SE Northumberland perspective so having 25 buses or 4 buses going along the Coast Road won't affect them. I wasn't attacking GNE there it's just genuinely what's happened in the area whereas you've got a major bias towards GNE.
GNE might be good in Consett, Hexham and Gateshead but in Sunderland and North Tyneside they've been butchering away at services for awhile now with little improvements on the main.