(25 Feb 2020, 11:43 pm)Storx wrote Since the demise of the 19 I was thinking of a way of getting it to work however this would involve 2 councils, possibly Cobalt, and the NHS all working together.
20 (Hourly): 42/42A Route from North Shields to Cobalt, direct to Earsdon via Shiremoor skipping Northumberland Park, 19 bus route to Ashington, extended to Wansbeck Hospital
20A (Hourly): Same as 20 until Boghouses then 58 bus route to East Hartford
These buses would be branded for the NHS and be an extended shuttle bus linking all the three hospitals together as currently it's very difficult to get between them. There would also be discounted fares between Shiremoor Metro and Northumbria Hospital which would give a frequent but a reasonable priced fare between the hospital, Seaton Delaval and Holywell to the Metro which you can't really do currently without going via Newcastle or back tracking via West Monkseaton which is 3Z on the Metro. I know if it was marketed well it could become popular as the X7 is too slow at peak times but the current 19 is too expensive.
This would replace the 58, the 335 between North Shields and Cobalt and the Northumberland NHS Shuttles Buses and get all the subsidies which go into all 3 but creates lots of new links such as East Hartford to anywhere, the links between the 3 hospitals and keep the Cobalt link for SE Northumberland and also may help with the serious parking issues at the new hospital. You would lose the 2 daily service from Seaton Sluice to Cramlington however but they carry fresh anyway atm.
It's that word again.
It keeps cropping up over and over.
I bought a 24 hour ticket at the weekend. I needed to use the bus the following day.
A mate (who didn't need to use the bus the next day), bought a single for the same trip.
I paid just over £3 more to use the bus as much as I wanted the next day in addition to the one-off journey we made that day.
I've no doubt who got the bargain and who got ripped off.
Getting back to the subject of the 19. It has indeed slowly started to fall away over the years.
After the initial fanfare of 'special vehicles' and all the funding its attracted over the years at various points of the route, we are now seeing it operate as a shadow of its former self.