(26 Aug 2021, 12:27 am)Drifter60 wrote You’ve said this before but I don’t understand the logic. Just because you’ve got a beach and coastline in one location doesn’t mean you wouldn’t visit somewhere else with a beach and coastline. I’m guessing your point is Shields has a ‘superior’ seaside offering but I’d argue both have a different sort vibe, you have amusements/arcades and a funfair in South Shields, Seaham doesn’t and perhaps has less to offer in a wider sense but you do have Tommy (recently voted the UK’s favourite sculpture), the marina development etc. Different offerings. And sometimes you just fancy a change of scenery for a day out? It’s also about cross city links, Ryhope to Fulwell etc. as Dan points out about the current 20.
In fairness the cross city links were there until recently with the 9 and obviously no-one used them hence they were scrapped.
I agree with him though the 20 is a better route to run through people from the rest of the route excluding the centre of South Shields are more likely to want to travel to Durham especially Cleadon rather than Seaham. It's not exactly hard to change for the 1 person a week who might fancy a trip to Seaham but personally I'd rather get the ferry to North Shields Fish Quay, the E1/E2 to Roker or Metro to Tynemouth or Whitley Bay which all offer something nicer than Seaham (no offence to the place).