(30 Sep 2020, 7:47 pm)Storx wrote I know where your coming from but for someone living in the area it would be horrendous. It's bad enough as it is the fact we have a Metro line 2 mile away and the only ticket you can use on both is a £10.90 explorer ticket or pay a inflated price for a return on the bus by both GNE (19) - £4 or something stupid now I believe and Arriva (57) - £3.401 & 2 would be Stagecoach as they're Blyth routes. Agree with what you're saying but would the CMA agree after the red meat fiasco?
At least we can get a bus pass we can use to Newcastle, Whitley, Cramlington, Blyth etc. If you split the depots we'd need one for Newcastle / Blyth then a second one for Whitley / Cramlington. You don't realise how much you'd cripple the network around here which would lead to cuts (X7, tagged onto the end of the X63) sort of stunts leading to less people using buses, night buses gone and so on. At Blyth the X10/X11/308 might do well but the rest of the routes would really struggle.
Jesmond less so but Ashington and Blyth badly need to be the same operator or you'd cripple the SE Northumberland network as similar patterns would happen in other areas aswell. Cowpen for example has 3 services X8 (Stagecoach), 1 and 2 (GNE) it just wouldn't work. Bedlington Station. 1 (Stagecoach), 19 (GNE), X21 (GNE) for another. Once the train comes (if it does) it'll be ever worse as all 3 of those places will have the train aswell.
Agreed on Whitby being a good combination for Transdev though.
RE: Arriva Future Orders