(19 Dec 2020, 7:30 pm)Storx wrote 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.

I think the key is to finding where the cars are heading to. Not just in the morning and evening peaks, but beyond that. 

The Port of Tyne is a huge employer for residents of South Tyneside, as is the likes of Nissan.
For someone living in Whiteleas or Biddick Hall and on a shift pattern, is there any reliable public transport provision which would cover them to Tyne Dock or Nissan? Of course not.
Never mind two huge residential areas, you can't even do those journeys from the likes of Chichester or Boldon Colliery and they're not far from either of those two key employment sites. 

It's very similar for someone living in Marsden and working somewhere in Newcastle, such as the Business Park. 
Do you faff on getting a bus in to Shields and subsequently being at the whim of the Metro and the 22 or 12 (never mind any confusion of the various ticketing options or validity)? 
Do you go around the world on an X34 and look for a connection at the other end or do you drive in? 

Ticketing, pricing, the existing network and convenience.
That's where the problem lies imo.
The passengers are there, it's just the operators don't know what to do with them. Even though they think they do.
Except they don't - which is backed up with the ever regular decline in passenger numbers.