(07 Jan 2022, 10:45 pm)MurdnunoC wrote The reason Throckley, Chapel House and Westerhope have services which link one another is because the conduit is more or less linear and doesn't involve moving through an impassable object, namely that blue squiggly thing on the bottom of the map: The River Tyne. Gateshead is popular because it is a municipal centre for the Borough of Gateshead, just like Newcastle City Centre is for suburbs of Newcastle. Both are linked by a series of bridges that cross the River Tyne. Newcastle is also a regional capital and hub for people wishing to travel onwards to other regional hubs via train or coach, so it makes sense to have buses from the hinterlands of Gateshead (ie: Blaydon, Ryton, Winlaton and so forth) into Newcastle but not from suburban Newcastle (Westerhope, West Denton, Chapel House and beyond) into Gateshead as there would not be much point.
There may well be others, aside from yourself, who use opt GNE tickets within Stagecoach territory. However, I'd wager there use is specific to one service at one particular time of day for the purposes of commuting to/from a permanent place of work or education (not because they fancy a jolly on the bus to the furthest outreaches of the network). I would also wager these people are in the tiniest fractional minority. If people need to use two operators, there are multi-operator/mutli-modal tickets available for that specific purpose. Once this alleged BSIP comes to fruition, it is mooted that the cost of this ticketing will significantly come down in price thus benefiting passengers who use this type of ticket or pass. As for the rest, they will be happy to use Stagecoach tickets because that is the operator who, by hook or crook, are the most dominant in the area. They won't walk miles just to use another operator due to some bad experience. There may be issues with reliability here and there, but there are with all operators and I don't think the sudden introduction of a GNE service into the territory will solve that because, guess what, they can be unreliable too (as evidenced by threads elsewhere on the forum).
I have suffered countless bad experiences with Stagecoach in Newcastle, but not in South Shields or Sunderland. Using Go North East works out cheaper for the places I go to (including Wallsend and elsewhere where Stagecoach also operates). For volunteering pre-Covid I sometimes needed GNE tickets and other times preferred the reliability. Multi operator tickets are just a waste of money for myself and others willing to walk. Personally I think paying for two operators is a waste of money just into town. GNE also gave me some free travel in 2020 which supported my volunteering efforts. Stagecoach once gave me a free day ticket.
Stagecoach caused me a number of serious issues. GNE has rarely let me down. Very happy with GNE. For employment in particular I need reliable transport, and even for volunteering its good to be on time.