(13 Oct 2022, 6:11 am)Storx wrote Couldn't someone from Penshaw walk to Shiney Row and get the 39B it's not that far :s
Mind I don't really get why the 39B is express between there and Washington rather than serving the estates.
Yes, that seemed to be a suggestion in Andreos’ example - and at that point the difference in journey time is just 9 minutes between bus and car (excluding the walk from Biddick Woods to the stop in Shiney Row, of course - 12 mins in car versus 19 mins on 39B).
So at that point, the comparison is effectively being drawn to having a car on your doorstep and having to walk to a bus stop (because the nearest one mightn’t be served by that bus) - and I just don’t know how this can be overcome as you can’t have a bus from everywhere to everywhere, and for every bus that is diverted you’ll have some qualms that you’re increasing journey times and that’s equally as bad. I see a lot of problems outlined on this forum but not often a solution.
The contract for the 39B (when it was originally tendered as a 37) was for an hourly service that links Tunstall Bank, Doxford Park and Washington Galleries - as Nexus were reducing their spend on some existing services to plug the gaps left by Go North East at the time who withdrew their own commercial services due to low use, I suspect 1 PVR was all Nexus could afford/justify based on passengers per pound of cost.
Right now of course the 39 is running on a reduced frequency and there is lots of layover at The Galleries which wouldn’t normally be there - so currently it could do something (if there was a desire to slow down journey times to open up new links), but if that frequency is reinstated then the links would have to be abolished (or add an extra bus to PVR to allow them to be maintained - and there probably aren’t enough passengers in the area to justify this without abstracting from other services they already travel on).
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