(27 Jan 2022, 3:23 pm)Drifter60 wrote Three very quick observations:
1) Bournmoor seems to be the only place falling outside its county/borough line, it’s County Durham but appears to be in the Tyne and Wear Zone - a mistake?
2) Seaton Sluice and Holywell, I can’t make out what zone they are, Northumberland or Tyne and Wear? Or both?
3) They still haven’t sorted the messy titles of “City of Sunderland” ticket and “Sunderland Central” ticket, despite the former now extending down to Blackhall, which is closer to Hartlepool than Sunderland! I’m not sure why they haven’t renamed it “Sunderland + East Durham” to safe confusion across the board. How many folk in Sunderland may end up with the more expensive ticket when they’re just going Doxford Park to The Bridges?

The problem with Bournmoor not being in the Tyne and Wear zone, is that it creates an issue with the 4 route that it exits Tyne and Wear for 2 or 3 stops, then returns through Fencehouses and on to Houghton. I may be wrong, but I'd assume the travel habits of people there are more aligned with Shiney Row and Houghton than they are Chester-le-Street.

Good question regarding Seaton Sluice and Holywell. I had thought the point sitting between the two boundaries indicates that both tickets are valid to/from those places, but then Ponteland is about 1/4 in the Tyne and Wear zone on the map!

Agree with the Sunderland ticket names. Maybe Sunderland & District would have been better (and brand consistent), and would have distinguished between the two tickets better.

(27 Jan 2022, 4:16 pm)Ambassador wrote I do feel for the folks on the borders who are forced into buying a ticket (the likes of Ouston, Hetton, Seaham) who are probably as a whole travelling North towards the city.

It's crazy it's cheaper to travel from Ouston to Bishop Auckland than Ouston to Birtley (which is a more likely journey lets be honest!) - I get there has to be a cut off at some point but it seems very straight cut vs potential travel patterns.

There was something on page 10 of the BSIP about this - "To further improve the offer, additional low cost, multi modal, multi operator fares will be developed to make pricing more affordable in areas that are a short distance from a zone boundary"

Now I know that the BSIP is very unlikely to be delivered, but the cost of fixing this at long last must be negligible and hopefully the new fares do that at least on GNE services.

(27 Jan 2022, 4:36 pm)Chris 1 wrote I read it as, if the normal daytime fare is less than £2 then the normal daytime fare will apply.  If it's more than £2, then you'll pay £2.

I wonder how that works with the new system of just tapping your card? i.e. how does it know that the journey you're intending to make is less than £2?