(14 Oct 2020, 8:07 am)Dan wrote Pre-COVID, you could stand on the Coast Road corridor and observe empty buses all through the day.

The fact of the matter is that during (and post) COVID, this situation will be a lot worse, so you'd be mad not to expect some sort of reduction in the level of service on this corridor. If a bus is empty, how is it sustainable to run? One doesn't need access to passenger data to be able to say anecdotally that a lot of the buses on this corridor are empty.

It's still a very bold claim to categorically say that the buses will only get investment if they cut the frequency. No-one knows the data for services, even known they possibly could be making a small loss during the day (could be balanced a bit out from small hopper journeys from Blyth to South Beach or Whitley to Lynn Road etc), the frequency is very needed at peak times.

For Arriva they could just think it's easier to run the whole thing at every 15 minutes all day rather than doing 15 at peaks, 20 in between not to mention they have the schools runs which hit right in the middle then drivers doing nothing inbetween (there's nothing for them to drop off to Blyth).

I don't want to make assumptions though but it's you can't categorically say something without the data that they have. I don't live under a rock to say that it would never be cut but it's definitely not a certain as the person I replied to claimed.