(03 Oct 2021, 3:00 pm)Andreos1 wrote I'm firmly of the belief that if operators really want to push ahead with a 'hub and spoke' model, they need to consider alternatives to the town and city centres they force on passengers now and start to consider alternatives.
Not only do people not work in the town and city centres, like they did in the past. We've seen the growth in out of town business and retail parks.
Quite often those who work or visit there, can't get public transport to those places. Or if they can, it's usually very limited.
If operators are going to think outside the box and do something different - not too different (we know how much they struggle with change...), why don't they consider creating new hubs and as a result, new spokes.
Could the 'bus station' at Team Valley be improved, so that becomes a hub? They could operate routes to/from there, from places people actually live. Not somewhere that's a current hub, is well out of the general direction and would add 30/45mins on to an average morning commute.
Dalton Park is seeing an upturn in people using the bus and could easily increase its potential market share and footfall, by making that investment and encouraging people to use the bus to get there from a wide variety of locations (not just Seaham or Sunderland which has traditionally always been the case for bus users).
The Arnison Centre has similar potential imo. If not more than Dalton Park, based on the proximity of a number of key employment sites.
That's assuming operators look beyond the traditional bus to/from the city centre and Chester le Street corridor...
I'd argue these retail and business parks are the new town and city centres and I think it is time operator's looked at them in that way.
The GNE express network clearly has a focus in/out of Newcastle. A quick look at the map would indicate it is the hub of the network. I'm not sure needs to be the main/focus/central hub of a series of duplicated routes and services. Particularly when so many of the routes/services skirt the edges of other potential hubs.
Yeah I totally agree if I had to be honest, but then again if we were a real innovate country then there arguably should be a tram/metro line to Team Valley. Then you could connect the buses to the new Team Valley line at the South end and get arid of half of the buses heading anywhere near Newcastle, 28/28/29 for example.
Would work for the P&R which has been rumoured in the area for ages aswell.
If you used the Hexham line I don't see even why it would cost that much, you could easily bridge it off using the abandoned bridge on Bensham Bank and then just run along the side, or the through the middle of Kingsway. Shame we're not innovate like that; The Metro Centre is another prime one and there's already a railway line there sitting to be used and get arid of the likes of 6 going to Newcastle with proper connections to the tram/metro.
I know some will say, 'but it's quicker to bus it all the way' but if we're serious about climate change they shouldn't be there and it works in pretty much every other country in Europe. It's mental how far behind our public transport is imo.
It's how a Hub and Spoke network really should work, with a hub based around a faster type of transport (train / tram / guided busway) at that point rather than like you said being in random towns no-one wants to go to.