(11 Feb 2023, 6:53 pm)Malarkey wrote Bigger problem with Timetables is when you have two services of a similar route following each other within few minutes such as the 28B/81 through Low Fell (Chowdene Bank) towards Gateshead/Newcastle on an evening then having no service for an hour repeating the same cycle throughout the evening which benefits absolutely nobody in which you then see operators claiming services are not viable, well this is the reason why.

When you look at the 71/78 on the other hand the services are evenly split departing Chester-Le-Street towards Great Lumley at a frequency of every 17-20 minutes as the 71 comes at xx:42 and the 78 is xx:25/xx:55 mins past the hour, I think the main issue for the 71 towards Seaham is it doesn't really serve anywhere of great significance and mainly serves estates highly populated by the elderly so in turn doesn't make much money either and from Seaham you either extend to either Sunderland or Peterlee which duplicates services further to the benefit of nobody.

From looking at timetables you could merge the 29/71 into one route as the as the 71's arrive into Chester at xx:35 and the 29 departs at xx:43 for Newcastle in the opposite direction the 29 arrives into Chester at xx:36 and the 71 departs at xx:42 both of which are ran on behalf of Nexus/Durham County Council a lot more sustainable to be ran on a commercial basis. 

Currently the 28/29 interwork to facilitate the above change i'd then have the 25/28 interwork at Chester-Le-Street as both like the example above arrive within 10 minutes of each other and would give drivers a short break which benefits them.