(24 Jul 2022, 6:17 pm)Storx wrote By the way I read the way it was posted I assumed the (A690 / A183) meant run non-stop along it express rather than stopping along it even then is there that much demand for it. Does that many people actually travel from Sunderland to Newcastle to warrant express services along every road. Arguably the best area for one is North Sunderland as they'd have to travel backwards or travel on the extremely slow 56 and it's failed twice now I believe.
imo if they really wanted to do an Newcastle service from Sunderland then I'd do these changes and give parts of Washington a direct to Newcastle aswell which they don't have either. It also fixed the Doxford Park link to Sunderland with GNE.
2 - Full 2 doing 2A route in Penshaw (Every 30 Minutes)
2A - 2A Sunderland to Silksworth only, Washington section replaced by X2 (Every 30 Minutes)
X2 - https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Newcastl...e9!1m0!3e0 - Every 30 Minutes
33 - Replaced by X2
39/39A - No Changes
39B - Terminate at Doxford Park
2/78 - Work together to provide a 15 minute service from Shiney Row to Sunderland via Chester Road
If it was a suggestion to run non-stop on the only stretch not competing with the Metro (A183/A690) - then I agree with you, pointless. Your suggested routing is not bad and would open up a lot of new links (so not only relying on people doing the whole Newcastle-Sunderland route). It's an interesting question as to whether there is enough demand for such services ... there will doubtless be plenty travelling back and forth along the Felling Bypass or A1 every day and it's how to tempt them out of their cars. Direct, fast (and reliable of course) buses that dont require them to travel in the wrong direction first (and either have to find somewhere to park to then get Metro, or pay for multioperator tickets) are the answer IMO. I genuinely don't know how they measure whether the demand exists - for example, when did the last express run along A690 Sunderland to Newcastle, if ever? If they don't have historic or recent passenger data, how do they know what the demand might be? I don't think I've ever seen consultations (for any operator or indeed Nexus) asking people where they want to go from and to; just ones asking which cuts to existing routes are their favourites...