(16 Oct 2022, 2:07 pm)cbma06 wrote If you owned a bus company would you pay a fee for each bus timetabled to use the bus station, the fees will rack up over the year, that’s mostly why stagecoach pulled out of Sunderland Interchange plus the added times to the timetable to divert the bus to and from the interchange, plus most passengers would board and alight from Vine Place/Holmside/John St and Fawcett street anyway, the same goes to Newcastle and other city/town centres.

Ideally this station project would involve operator commitment from the outset, and in doing so would be unlikely to have to pay anything (in the same way they don't have to pay for kerb enhancements in Quality Partnerships).

Alternatively, these days, they can easily be forced to use it, it being clear such a project only goes ahead after an Inquiry, which will see the merits of a single interchange and thus authorise the council to pedestrianise Blackett Street and make whatever other changes needed to ensure Stagecoach had no other realistic option, except run every bus to or past Central Station, which would hardly be a bad thing.

All that goes against my liberal instincts, so I'd rather believe Stagecoach could be quite easily convinced of the benefis of having all their services meeting each other in one single place in town, with no discernable loss of time or increase in mileage that I can see.

We're talking at most a doubling of the number of buses using the streets in the top end of town at any one time, I guestimate, with half of those still only quickly passing through a la Blackett Street.

Easily achieved, with a worst case scenario being to make those streets a mix of bus only or one way, with lots of capacity freed up in the southern steeets to accommodate the displaced private traffic.

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(16 Oct 2022, 2:30 pm)Rob44 wrote I hope your not saying get rid of the three bulls!!

Wasn't exactly a hive of activity the last time I was there, popping in after work on a Champions League night. Closing at ten on weekdays and pretty quiet at weekends, all adds up to a motivated seller if you ask me. The old soaks can gan doon the Bigg Market for their Saturday afternoon half a milds.