(08 Mar 2023, 6:17 pm)DeltaMan wrote The issue east of the A19 is that it's simply not very good bus operating territory.

Apart from Meadowell/North Shields and Norham Road (which are well served by Bus or Metro)  it's actually one of the wealthiest parts of the region. 

The attachment is the social deprivation index for that area. The darker the blue, the wealthier the area.

Aye it's fair point mind but I dunno it's just an area that needs a plan. It doesn't help there's 5 operaters currently either mind without any sensible ticketing between them other than Day Rovers. 

I don't know if it's legally possible (should be) but I wish Nexus would do longer contracts and actually try to grow some of the services. Yearly contracts just give no motivation to anyone. Routes like the 19, 317 and 51 could be routes imo that have a purpose if they actually tried rather than being rump services like they are currently. 

It'll be interesting if there's every scope for more cross boundary contracts like bolting the 58 and W2 together, two utterly pointless services in the main currently.