(29 Jun 2022, 5:03 pm)omnicity4659 wrote Night buses need looking at as a whole across the region... I'm sure that I've said it before, but bus operators struggle to meet the needs of those who travel late at night on Fridays and Saturdays, with roads heading out of the city almost as busy as during the day up until 2-3am, so what chance have they got at getting it right every other night?

I'm regularly driving around at night and there is some demand from looking at the numbers of cars and taxis on the road, not just for buses but for the likes of Metro too.

This has been said before and does hit the nail on the head in my opinion. 

I drive so don’t use buses for work, visiting the shops etc. as I take the car. So when I do get the bus, it’s general for leisure activities whereby I either want a drink or parking isn’t feasible. This of course tends to be either in the evenings or weekends. Since the 65 launched evening and Sunday services last September, I’ve used it a couple of times in the evening to travel to/from Seaham on the last buses at approx 10:30. I’ve also done a couple of journeys to/from Durham once on a Saturday early evening and a few times on a Sunday/Bank Holiday. 

Now all of these times of days are facing cuts, evenings are scrapped altogether, Saturday after 3pm reduced it seems and Sundays going two hourly. I understand ‘buses can’t run empty’ but it just seems to me that by cutting where they have you’re reducing all of those key leisure times - such as evening/night life economy, weekend tourism etc. 

The system is flawed.