As a North Tyneside resident, connections - with some thought put into them - are key for me. I don't claim to be a bus enthusiast so won't say which vehicles should be used, but I do take a strong interest in transport networks.

A single into town on the Coast Road bus is currently £2 on Arriva, £2.30 on Go North East. I can get day saver tickets for £3.90 or £4 respectively, if I think my return evening journey will coincide with the correct operator.

Now, I quite often need to travel by train from the Central Station - but not every day. Currently (and admittedly as a result of Covid), parking all day after 09:30 at the Central Station only costs £5. It's a no brainer for me to pay the extra £1 / £1.10 to drive into Newcastle. As well as the convenience about not having to wait for buses, it also saves me the walk from St. Mary's Place to the Central Station and back.

If there was a direct service along the Coast Road, but one which continued to the Central Station / MetroCentre / beyond, that may tip the balance and get me out of the car. To take it to the next level, if one of the South / West axis X-Lines (Hexham / Consett) could be extended along the Coast Road into North Tyneside - perhaps first stop Station Road to keep the express factor, then all the better! Where would it go beyond there? Who knows - Redesdale Park / Cobalt / Hadrian Park / semi-express to the Coast - I'd suggest prudent not to over-target areas already served by the Metro.

I would probably withdraw one or two Cobalt and Coast an hour from the west end of the Coast Road (at the cost of missing intermediate stops in the Newcastle borough), with the X-Lines operating in lieu. Surely the Coast Road itself is an asset which the X-Lines brand should exploit? I've read previously, although the GNE website does not explicitly say, that the raison d'etre of X-Lines is to provide inter-urban services and arguably North Tyneside is suburban. So what? If I lived at the Coast would I want to sit on a stopping service for best part of an hour, where it can be driven direct in less than half that? Of course not. Would I sit on a bus that got me into town slighty slower the car, but faster than the stopping services, most probably!

Another example, I had regular cause to use the Shields Ferry on a Friday evening. 22:15 ferry from South Shields, and hope it arrived on time in North Shields at 22:22. Then a brisk walk, breath-taking (not breathtaking!), walk up the hill for the 22:30 310 from the top of Borough Bank. The route 19 bus would have missed the 310. Said 310 no longer operates, but for the sake of a minute or two to divert to (terminate at) the ferry landing would have helped massively.

I appreciate I'm only one person and wouldn't want the network to revolve around me, but these are just a couple of examples where some changes could get me on the bus more often.

If any GNE planners are reading this, I'd be happy to further my two-penneth in any consultation.