(15 Jun 2022, 2:54 pm)Andreos1 wrote The key to all of this, is that what exists as the 25 and 28 now, don't need to continue as the 25 and 28 going forward.
Do the people of Pelton Fell really need or want a bus to Gateshead and Newcastle via the world?
Do the people of Chester need or want a bus to Wrekenton or Harlow Green?
Of course they don't. But they do need a bus.
So find out where they need to be and build around that. Make money in a creative way, rather than GNE sticking with the time old honour of what they know.
The 25 has existed longer than I have been alive (obviously it has been the X25 and 725 in that period) and I've seen so many changes to shopping, working and leisure in that time for people living along its route.
Yet still GNE insisted on keeping the same old, assuming moving it away from the QE and Old Durham Road, renumbering and paint job would attract punters.
Ditto the 28, which is the amalgamation of the 709 (Stanley to Newcastle bus) with another that went from Stanley to Chester.
It didn't work back in 2006 when the wholesale changes were made and I'm pretty sure diverting it via the world and more or less every pit village between High Handenhold and Chester, rather than have it go to Stanley hasn't really worked either.
This is genuinely not instead to be a flippant or abrupt response so please don’t view it in that way.
Where do you think these people would prefer buses to?
You’d hope that if the tenders are only for 1 year, prior to the tenders next year they would conducted a consultation to find out as they would have more time to prepare.