(19 Dec 2020, 4:55 pm)ifm001 wrote Just because the metro goes to South Shields does mean it covers the vast areas of it.  Main areas of services 3, 4, 7, 8, 12, 17 and 30 are not served by metro.
The issue is the core services of 3, 4, 7, 8, 17, and 18 are midibus operated every 10 mins (pre covid) . SNE operate via contract to Nexus into Jarrow but not Hebburn.  If the core services were reduced to 20 mins and operated by double decker (not sure on fuel efficie cy vs vehicle or anything) that would release prob 6 to 10 drivers amd vehicleswhich would enable an introduction of other new services which could extend into the areas that are neglected by GNE. But again if the passengers arent there for GNE what's to say they would be there for SNE.  Personally I believe SNE should trial a service commercially into Jarrow and Hebburn and see if there is any potential.

It was more about though do people really want to go to Jarrow and Hebburn though or are most people actually travelling to Newcastle and beyond and are just using the bus to connect to a Metro station at Chichester or Jarrow with the 10 and 11 etc. For example someone going to  Hebburn they could easily just hop on the bus to Chichester or Jarrow and then just use the Metro from there for what little demand there will be. I'm guessing most people will have Network One pass though unless they live their live entirely in South Shields and will use both anyway.

The areas which are further away from the Metro have the 11 and 12 running through them pretty much bridging the gap then if you want to travel beyond Jarrow then you'd change to the Metro. It's same for someone from Hebburn if they wanted to travel to say South Shields they'd get their local service to Hebburn Metro then change there rather than sitting on a bus for 35 minutes with the X34 offering an express to Newcastle for those who don't want the change but good luck if you want it in an evening as it doesn't exist.

To me the bigger problem is the confusion for multi modal tickets. Network One tickets are just confusing for someone who never uses buses especially now you can't actually buy them outside of Metro stations and it's where we badly need some form of Smartcard like Oyster, MCard (Leeds), GetMeThere (Manchester), Swift (West Midlands) and so on. Pop should be the answer but Nexus are only bothered about the Metro. We must be the only area in the country where in 2020 you can't buy a bus and tram/rail ticket on the internet.