(19 Dec 2020, 4:19 pm)ifm001 wrote I'm South Tyneside and the simple answer here is lack of passengers.  No passengers and no competition.  Only really SNE and GNE the main operators here. GNE greatly reduced their services when withdrew from South Shields. We really need a 3rd competing operator to make the other 2 stand up and take notice but sadly the custom is not there. H1 and H2 from Hebburn to South Tyneside Hospital need to be looked at and merged into one service operating longer into the evening (post covid) or merging and introducing a new service altogether

I dunno if there's a lack of passengers. The population is huge. Just look at the vast number of housing estates in Shields alone.
I think it's a case of the buses not going where people are going.

The model is such, that the majority all feed in to the same areas they have done for the last 40 odd years when people shopped on King St, worked at Westoe or in the yards.
Except the yards and pit have gone and King Street is... well... King Street.