(20 Dec 2020, 8:03 pm)Andreos1 wrote I've followed a similar pattern in the past, with the last three houses I've bought. 
Made very little difference in the grand scheme of things, as with two of those houses we lost a number of links - including direct ones to Newcastle.

When I bought a house in Durham, the motorway, station and bus routes were all factors. 

However our priorities could be different to someone elses. Schools, nightlife, retail, employment and whatever else might be the things someone else looks at and public transport may be at the very bottom of the list.
If public transport is at the bottom of the list, operators can either do something about it and make the provision appealing (see the mention of the new estate in Birtley and the ludicrous one way loop of the 81/82 which means residents can't use the bus to the shops and the decision to increase journey times on the 25) or just not bother. 

I've not lived in Birtley for almost 30 years, but having returned on a regular basis to see friends and family the transport provision is one I've kept an eye on. 
As a kid growing up, there was the 26, 721, 727 and later the 777 which stopped 5/10mins away.
The 551 was a bit further to walk, as was the 725, 726, 183 and a minibus which ran up Vigo Lane and operated between Chester and Washington (can't remember the number). 
The number of cars per household was a lot lower than now - yet there wasn't a bus which entered the estate and made life easier or stopped my Mam dragging me down to Presto and then back up Harras Bank.
There was the option of getting a bus back up, but it meant my mam was clock watching and reliant on us coming out of the shops as the bus was due. Once my first sibling came along and a pram was needed, the bus just wasn't an option at all.
Needless to say, in the early 90s the decision to become a two-car household was made. 

Fast forward 30 years and not much has changed for the better.
The 26, 183, 551, 721, 726, 727, 777 and Chester based minibus are all long gone. The 25 (what was the 725) is clearly viewed as second rate and whilst the 82 enters Vigo and stops at the end of my old street in one direction, it's only good if you fancy a trip to the Galleries or hanging around bus stops in Birtley.
Nexus to their credit have secured the 23 and TB14 - but they're not that frequent. 
Car use has gone through the roof and instead of each household having one car if they're lucky - they now have at least 2.

But yeah, WiFi, fancy tables and bus priority measures will fix things

I suppose it's probably because I have the anti-car mindset rather than the anti-public transport mindset that every bugger else seems to have!
But also, I think access to good public transport also helps with those other priorities.
If access to your workplace is important, maybe having a 10 minute bus ride could be more appealing than living closer but being stuck in traffic for 20 minutes.
If access to nightlife is important, having a bus directly into your city of choice could make that happen
For me, having a house 5 miles away from the Metrocentre but with good public transport links would be far more convenient than being 1 mile away but without any public transport at all.

And I definitely agree about new housing estates, they need to be designed with public transport in mind. And with the size of some of these new estates, you need a bus just to get to the main road!
I almost get the impression that with all the tight bends they're designed to NOT allow easy access for buses!

And on your point about the WiFi and fancy tables, I think they do have a place on longer, already established routes, and if we're to believe what GNE say it does seem to work. 

I know not everyone is like me, but if the X21 didn't have tables so I could do work on the go, I would think about getting a car and saving the extra hour the bus takes.

I think for routes like the Angel, the they don't make as much sense, because if you're going the full route, you'd just use the X21 instead.