(08 Jun 2023, 7:17 pm)Storx wrote Aye, they've all been subsidised for years - must admit I wasn't very clear. I know the 53 has been since the 343/344 days and the 52 was only extended to Cramlington because of GNE ditching the Wallsend to Cramlington bus route ironically.

I think hourly is just too infrequent to be usable unless someone really has no other choice. They ideally need to be at least every 30 minutes. If someone starts work at 9.30 and the bus gets there at 9.32, it's as useless as not existing as the vast majority of people won't be waiting around for 58 minutes. Multiply that by multiple customers and you've got a pretty unsustainable bus.

It'll be interesting to see if Arriva make some changes to serve other areas aswekk especially with the X7, X8 and 57A which could easily be meddled with if they wanted ie. the 57A or X8 going via Fern Drive which will add a minute max or swapping the X7 or X8 to do the old 363 route via Fern Drive to pick out two which won't add much time or the X7/X8 not being express from South Gosforth to Newcastle as an 55 replacement.