(11 Dec 2021, 9:31 am)ifm001 wrote Considering Nexus are always reporting about how loss making services are and the need to make cuts where necessary, how many scholars services are duplicated that you know of and are really necessary and worth the cost
I was driving through West to East Boldon yesterday and an unknown Stagecoach Scholars service went past first, followed by a JH Coaches 803, a minute or so later Stagecoach 803 came past literally empty. Quickly followed by Stagecoach 558 to Boldon Asda and Fellgate and again followed by Stagecoach 801 to Boldon Asda
The 803 is a definite duplicate timed at 3 mins apart, however, I believe the 558 was a very similar route and the 801 similar again
Is there cost savings here, definatley with the 803, but how many more Scholars services are duplicates that are Nexus Tenders?
Back in the day when I was at school, I remember there being duplication of services. Some of it was down to one operator taking on a route commercially at the expense of a funded route. OK vs Wear Buses 462 was one example which ran a couple of minutes apart and were definitely overkill. An ancient OK single decker was closely followed by a Wear Buses Oly, which probably ran on to the 185.
No sign of OK on an afternoon, but there was always the Oly in the car park.
There has been some consolidation since then on another scholars which served the schools. The 461 was ran by a handful of single deckers and served both schools in the area - running over Fatfield Bridge and through the tunnel at Penshaw. More recently, they're operated by fewer deckers (from observations anyway) and no longer serve Fatfield Bridge or the tunnel at Penshaw.