(21 Jun 2023, 4:46 pm)Storx wrote See personally I think they do have a future but they need to compliment trains and the Metro rather than outright compete against them. Like just to pick Hexham for an example, if the likes of 687, ran from Newborough to the train station and it's timetabled to connect with a train it would work. Similar in the opposite direction where you can get off certain trains and the bus will be sitting there waiting and takes you the last mile.

Instead we have a bus to the bus station, miles away from the train station 7 minutes after the 685 departs. Want to go to Newcastle ? Good luck. 

The 4 is an example of a good connecting bus and it's actually quite busy aswell really. There's always quite good enough loads at the Regent Centre aswell whenever I've passed through, imagine if you could actually buy a bus and metro ticket from Ashington... It would be a good start, if these new tickets ever happen.

It's the whole bigger picture that's so glaringly obvious - but keeps being missed.

The X84/X85 were obviously options for those in the outlying areas. Get a bus to Hexham and using the same ticket, connect for that next stage.
Except the timetables just didn't work. 

There's many other examples. Not sure what it's like now, but Chester was an absolute pain. 
You would think the 34 would be timed to sync with maybe a 50, 78 or 21.
It would be the obvious thing to have a 78 timed to connect with a 21
It never happened and inevitably played a part in the drop off in numbers across the board.