(22 Jul 2022, 4:49 pm)DeltaMan wrote The 61 timetable makes complete sense if you view it from the point that GNE want the long 61 to serve all the same stop pairs in Murton as the short one before it goes off to Peterlee, so that some don't end up with an hourly service from Sunderland. I am not saying its right, but that looks like why they've done it that way.
Anyway, the new 12 is by far the worse offender for egregious routing in order to save resource!
Well it does and it doesn’t, GNE obviously as you say want to keep all areas they currently serve to the new half hourly frequency. But now with 3 buses ph doing the same loop of Murton they offer 3 buses to Sunderland - come Monday, they’ll still have 3 buses ph doing the same loop of Murton but 2 are going to Sunderland and one is going to Peterlee. GNE aren’t reducing how many buses per hour they send round Murton but they’re offering a worse service - 2 vs 3 to Sunderland. Obviously GNE’s plan was always to reduce the amount of 61s ph to Sunderland, but the fact they’re actually not reducing the amount of buses going round Murton seems counterintuitive when this was about reducing costs and saving resources.