(27 Dec 2021, 2:13 pm)Andreos1 wrote That's hub and spoke for you.
It doesn't seem to work for anyone but the operators, but they insist on continuing with it. 

The inconvenience of hub and spoke, is one of the reasons (imo) we see people making the switch to the car when they get a chance. 
Of course, there are others, but when you think that the hub and spoke model is an internal factor to the operators and one they can change, then it makes you wonder why they don't...

Hub and spoke makes sense in some cases, the city centre is the centre and is therefore naturally a hub. Many services need to pass through, such as for Byker/Walker/Wallsend and onto Cobalt and Killingworth. Equally buses need to serve all of the different areas, terminating in the city centre. However Blaydon not having a service is an odd thing as the 6/7/8 all serve Scotswood Road and the 6 and 7 continue to Metrocentre, Stagecoach and GNE both serving Metrocentre and Scotswood Road and I only realised from the 792 and 941 that Blaydon is quite close to Cowgate, Fenham, Denton Burn etc and could be reached from West Denton or Westerhope perhaps. There obviously mustn't be the demand, but it's a real shame as Westerhope is quickly reached from as far away as South Shields and Hexham, but only the 74 utilises the link.

I would love to see West Newcastle linked to Gateshead and this could be a good opportunity for A-line and GNE to expand and enter new territory. Henry Cooper should run a service from Kingston Park into North Tyneside, maybe Wallsend or Tynemouth, via Fenham.