(05 May 2020, 8:57 pm)James101 wrote Following on from the discussion of a service from Hartlepool and Billingham to North Tees I've thought about re-working the Stockon - Norton corridor. Crucially I've tried to rework current PVRs rather than adding in extra resources which is unlikely to happen:
6 (Hartlepool)
Route to operate Owton Manor to Marina only. Operates every 15 minutes to provided a 7/8 minute frequency with revised 36/37 below. Service 7 becomes standalone.
36
Reduced to every 30 minutes throughout. Re routed 37 maintains current frequency on key corridors. 36 & 37 both extend from Hartlepool Town Centre to Clavering along current 6 route so northern parts of the town benefit from extended services.
37
Rerouted from Stockton. Along Durham Rd to North Tees, resumes current route through to Norton. Continues to Hartlepool along 36 route. Passengers in Roseworth now catch bus on the other side of the road to head to Stockton & Boro but all links and frequencies are maintained in this area.
The map shows how key corridors have frequencies maintained:
There's a lot shared corridors here so it may not be possible to have totally even frequencies on all sections but if it was orientated around having the 15 minute corridors on even headways it's less inconvenient if the 10 6 buses per hour corridors run at 8/12 minute intervals, for example. The only real downgrade buses between Boro and Norton direct via Stockton go from every 6/7 mins to every 10 but it's still a well served run.
(05 May 2020, 11:17 pm)tyresmoke wrote I think the main provlem with that is you’d end up with the 36 and new 37 on top of each other from Norton through to Hartlepool as it wouldn’t lose half hour to go via the hospital I wouldn’t think.
Working on current times
37 gets 10 minutes from Norton Red Lion to the Hospital, then the 58 and Arriva's X22 both get 10 minutes from the Hospital down Durham Road into Stockton so looking at about 20 minutes if the 37 was revised to the above idea.
BUT why then sabotage the current 8 buses an hour down Norton Road to Middlesbrough by reducing the 36 to half hourly and taking the 37 away to try and cover a link that has previously been proven not to be commercially viable overwise somebody would have commercially registered the H1 when the funding was withdrawn.
You aren't going to push away your bread-and-butter passengers along Norton Road to provide a direct journey that is probably only required by a handful of people.
A better solution would be, once this is over and once things have settled down, is to allow journeys on Tees Flex from the Hartlepool Zone to North Tees Hospital. It's a damn sight easier than destroying a sustainable network for a handful of people.