(28 Jan 2023, 9:07 pm)Unber43 wrote Honestly i wouldn't take off the 33, atleast reduce it. I would also have the services serve atleast Prospect Lidl. 36/37 I would personally extend to South Hetton, at least one of them, if not both at every 30 mins. This would also improve frequency down the A690 which has been slashed 50%. While keeping the 33.
You'll never get the 11.5m bus through Northlea, aswell hourly it needs to be more.
X6/X7/X8 I would renumber them, X6 (X60, 61, 62) more simpler. 60 could do with a possibly re-increase to every 12 as it does struggle with reliability due to high loadings
The 71 could be extended onto a service to newcastle, which imo would make sense, however Northlea it would struggle, however I wonder if you could take the 62 via Northlea & along Ryhope.
You could do like Seaham - Houghton - Chester-Le-Street - Gateshead - Newcastle it could be the 21 which would open new links.
The 33 isn't gone, it's just the 36/37/38 now instead but going further in the other direction. The idea was give the Hetton area a faster service to Sunderland without going on a magical mystery tour around every single estate in Sunderland and give them a link through to Dragonville and the Arnison direct which absorbing in the 82A, 39B, 82A, 79 and 79A which are just awful services into the 33. The 35 is running direct by the A690 instead btw.
I think the X6/X7/X8 is better personally but suppose the numbering wouldn't make much difference. Think the 60 would be fine with those as people in the centre of Seaham would naturally move across to them which should reduce the 60 numbers enough for it to cope. I only added the X8/62 to even it out otherwise you'd have 3 buses an hour with the X6/X7 and an awkward 20/40 timetable in Murton.
Maybe an alternative could be to have the X6 run via Northleas running non-stop from the town hall but upped to every 30 minutes as a compromise for Peterlee passengers, think I'd personally prefer a slightly slower service by a couple of minutes but twice the frequency - hourly is hopeless, might make it sustainable.
I did have the bus through to South Hetton originally but then it would make the 62/X8 a little bit pointless as it would be duplicating other services.