(18 May 2023, 10:37 am)Rob44 wrote TBH i dont disagee. But in reality where is the money going to come from and how are you going to get all the operators to agree to reducing they " money making" services and start runing shuttle buses?
And also you've got this up to so extenet already with the metro. Regent centre was mentioned.... why dont arriva cutail buses there and punter use the merto. same as X10 to town, stops at heworth turn it there. 21 turn it at Gateshead. Buses from winlation/ ryton, tunr them at blaydon and use the train to central.
The X10 in an ideal world wouldn't exist at all if they bothered to sort out the Durham Coast Line, it basically duplicates it.
For the Regent Centre lack of integration is the biggest killer, there's a lack of ticketing between the two currently. There's also the big problem with fares. In the current system the bus won't make money from the 4 passengers from the Great Park to Regent Centre or whatever but if it was a full integrated system then you'd balance it out and look at it as a bigger picture including the Metro part of it. A bus with 4 passengers from the Great Park to the Regent Centre is a less of a loss than a bus with 6 passengers from the Great Park to Newcastle which no doubt happens. I'm not 100% sure but I have a feeling the Q3 through Jesmond isn't fully commercial but I might be wrong.
It kind of already exists in some areas though but it's not that noticeable, Jarrow is the big one with the 9 etc terminating there with a change and South Shields and Sunderland with most customers having to change there to get to Newcastle other than the X24/X34 which fills the gaps. The 4 at Heworth is another one.
Gateshead is too close to the destination though imo, any changes really need to be further out otherwise it kind of defeats the point. A Chester Le Street - Birtley - Low Fell - Gateshead - Newcastle is probably the second biggest corridor crying out for rapid transport tbf after the West End with the likes of the 725, 34, 71, 25, 28, 82, 8, 78 all connecting to it at some point.
(18 May 2023, 10:42 am)streetdeckfan wrote For me personally, I would only switch to a metro/train/etc. if I was continuing on for a significant distance, or if I needed to change anyway.
I'm not wasting my time faffing about getting off the bus, walking to the metro, waiting for it to turn up, travelling 2 stops, finding my way back out and walking back to where I could have ended up on the bus!
That happens already though for most people, pick someone say travelling from Rickleton to Newcastle, they'd have to travel to Washington Galleries then change to the X1, there's nothing attractive about that; if they had the option to change to a Metro then it would change the picture big time. Alternatively you go for the model from Consett to Newcastle where you have to travel around every estate on the way and it takes two weeks. Neither are attractive to most people hence the high car usage in both areas pretty much.