(19 Dec 2020, 12:00 pm)Storx wrote Surely the better option would be to just extend some of the short 21's instead, there's 6 of them you could do something with rather than sticking another service on top of them. (There's 8 21's btw not 6 (every 7.5 mins)).

For the North Tyneside Hospital from S. Valley restoring the 57 to North Shields would be the easiest option and the QE to Birtley restoring the 25 along there. The bottom half already has an hourly service btw with the 28 it's Portobello etc where the complaints are coming from.

I'll fix my numbers
Although the point about probability is only enhanced. 

To be fair, the 28 misses out a big chunk of Birtley. Emerging on to Durham Road at the Station Road junction, it doesn't serve the majority of the shops and obviously you've got the likes of Barley Mow, Vigo, Portmeads etc who don't have a direct bus to the hospital (excluding the inept 925 which skirts the fringes of two of those three estates).

The 81/82 allows connections to each of the three areas from the 28 (although there's no common stop and it means crossing two roads or walking up Orchard Terrace) and with the 81/82 being a one-way loop, it means residents in the new houses can't actually get a GNE bus TO Birtley and connect to the 28.

The stop opposite the library/cenotaph which is the one opportunity for the 81/82 and 28 to share a common stop - doesn't have the 81/82 stopping there and is pretty exposed compared to others.
Obviously this means a walk down Orchard Terrace or a walk from outside Lloyd's Bank.