(15 Jan 2022, 4:50 pm)peter wrote I don't disagree that integrated tickets would be the best option, just in your original post you said you 'couldn't see the point' in coordinating them. It's a step in the right direction at least, albeit certainly not as far as they could go with it. 


You would hope that the bus service improvement plan might look at shimmying round a few services between operators. Personally though, I think it would make more sense for Stagecoach to operate the 685 in full rather than it being a joint operation.

I don't see much point in coordinating the 684/685 times and not the required tickets for travel on them (I now say much point, as of course it benefits passengers who are not restricted by tickets/passes). Just saying I would have combined the services fully, times and tickets, as likewise with the 306/308/309/310/311 and 42/42A/52/53/54/62/63/X63 on common sections, maybe also 1/22. Not sure how tickets could work exactly for all customers though (for example a ticket for all Killingworth services, to get any bus locally, but then you've got Cramlington/Kingston Park/Whitley Bay and Newcastle East/Centre/West in one direction, Wallsend and North Shields in the other).