(22 Feb 2020, 10:54 pm)L469 YVK wrote Don't know if I'm being biased here but after using the Coast Road services for the first time since GNE's Cobalt & Coast services were changed and observing loadings, it wouldn't surprise me if Arriva did the following:

- 306 & 308 reduced to every 20 mins each Mon-Fri.
- 306 & 308 reduced to every 60 mins each evenings (after approx 8.00pm Mon-Fri and 7.00 Sat & Sun) .
- Sunday daytimes unchanged.
- 51A extended to Marden Estate Mon - Sat.
- X6 withdrawn.

In fact, given the discussion about potential orders, it would fit in perfect as the PVR would only be 13x meaning that if new vehicles were ordered for the X21 / X22, the new PVR of 13x would be mostly covered using 7541-52 with the 13th vehicle being in the form of a 14 plate Sapphire E400.

In terms of dead mileage from the timetable I've produced,  there would be no 'cross route' dead mileage (306's running light from Tynemouth to Blyth or 308's running light from Blyth back to Jesmond).

I will upload the timetable / running board I've produced but struggling to upload from my laptop (maybe due to it being Windows  7 I guess??)

I don't understand your obsession with decreasing the frequency of the 306 and 308. There have been no changes anywhere in the area which would result in passengers in using other services so if the numbers are down then they have more than likely moved to driving not to mention they've been every 15 minutes since forever.

I might just be stupid but I'd do the reverse and advertise it heavily from Rake Lane to Blyth as the more frequent service, cheaper and runs later and try and kill off the 309. Unless your going to Cobalt or going to Gateshead / Metro Centre then there's no benefit of using the 309 over the 308 as it's slower and now less frequent.

I know your basing this off the 309/310/311 but they a different problem in which Stagecoach is taking their passengers from Cobalt with the 1, 22 and 22X. If you live in the West End you can now get to Cobalt on a Stagecoach day ticket so there's no reason to use the GNE buses and that'll be the main reason their numbers are down. Not to mention now they're branded as Cobalt and Coast when 1/3 of the buses don't go to Cobalt and 2/3 of them don't go to the Coast. This doesn't affect Arriva as the 1 and 22 don't compete against any of the 306/308 anywhere.

Reducing the frequency is just a stupid idea when we're supposed to be getting people to use buses and not drive. The only thing I would do is remove the 306 from Battle Hill and have quicker services to Billy Mill / North Shields / Tynemouth.