(25 Jul 2021, 7:04 pm)MurdnunoC wrote But why consider buses as the only feasible option for a Park and Ride anyway? Rail and Metro, reliability permitting, offer a faster route into Newcastle and don't suffer from delays brought about by traffic (cars won't just disappear). I mean, I take your point about buses potentially running parallel but it doesn't have to be that way with an holistic planning approach to public transport. Heworth, in my opinion, gets a bit too congested as it is more urban than Follingsby. However, a multi-storey car park could be a step in the right direction if the space is there to construct it.
Oh I don't I'm more for the rail park and rides, they'd be more popular imo as the journey time is much quicker and reliable. It's a shame we can't get the Leamside reopened to be honest though it'd be ideal for a Park and Rail site at Follingsby to be honest. Agreed about the congestion problems at Heworth though.
That said though and bringing it back to the thread if there was going to be a Hub anywhere it definitely should be Heworth imo, the place is really underutilised right now and to be honest is a bit of a dump. They should be imo looking at ways to integrate parking, buses, coaches and rail together as one place and make it an actual attractive place to interchange, not a few bus shelters outside a 80's rundown station which you can't access the rail station at all without going outside and down some grim stairs. It literally has everything there but it's just not utilised at all, Four Lane Ends which got redone in the 00's is a much nicer interchange (but in the wrong place).
The coach station in Newcastle is in a pretty unattractive place and Heworth is argubly easier to get to for most of Tyneside. I know they mostly stop at Meadowhall down in Sheffield so don't see why they couldn't do the same at Heworth tbh and it's served from pretty much everywhere South / South East of Newcastle including parts of Sunderland and also all the way down to Middlesbrough.
(25 Jul 2021, 7:18 pm)54APhotography wrote Follingsby would be a very good park and ride for the metro, as would a justifiable terminus for Durham being the A690 park and ride.
Nexus need to talk to GBR now, and specify multi voltage for their new trains, or any ideas of congestion busting will be pie in the sky.
Not sure what the point in that would be, people driving in cars won't want an option to park to use another public transport, that's just a bit of a farce especially when you could just park at one of the Metro stations 5 minutes away. The Stadler trains have a battery pack on though which can travel enough distance to be able to run to Follingsby though think they could get as far as Washington on them as a future proofing for the Leamside Line and I believe potential extensions South of Sunderland.