(01 Jul 2023, 3:21 pm)Adrian wrote It's really hard to disagree with any of those bullet points, but on bus cuts, I think we need to look at it in comparison with England outside of London as a whole, asking ourselves whether we're any worse off?

The urban area of Tyne and Wear hasn't been as heavily impacted as the unitary authorities that combine to form the LA7 have. By the stark contrast in population densities, it was never going to be either. The system itself has always been broken; a commercial market with an over-reliance on public money to continue running. Cuts have been significant since the introduction of the ENCTS free travel scheme in 2008, then have been further accelerated by the scheme receiving funding cuts from the Coalition Government 2010 onwards. Initially the scheme was fully-funded by central Government grants, but now the vast majority is on local authorities to find money. So generally speaking, if the reimbursement goes up, money for secured services comes down. This isn't unique to the LA7 area.

Out of the rest of your list, and to quote Albert Einstein, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. This is the biggest problem that we have here, and there never seems to be any desire coming forward to do something differently.

I'd say the three things that are most likely to be a barrier to using public transport are; cost, punctuality and convenience. Whilst we appear to be content in putting a sticking plaster over the gaping wound of cost for now, the other two issues remain largely unsolved. 

If you look at punctuality, there's a couple of factors for me, and I'll put the Newcastle issues this week to one side for a moment. 

As a direct impact of cuts, we've ended up in a situation where the frequency of some key services aren't adequate for at least part of the routes. It's resulting in greater loads, and whilst the buses may not be to full standing capacity all of the time, they're working harder in terms of how many are boarding/alighting. Looking at something like the 21 on Durham Road for example, that combined with traffic lights, and it doesn't take long for a bus to be running 10 late. We're seeing the same on the Metro, when it might only be one or two units taken out of service, but the knock on impact is the central section stations can't deal with the capacity.

Now bringing the Newcastle issues back into it, I think it highlights a bigger problem. When there are issues with punctuality, there doesn't seem to be a plan to get things back on track. This week I've seen 21s, X1s and 58s all running 30+ late, yet all running to the destination. In fact, I saw a photo last night of three 56s running into Sunderland together. Did no one have the foresight of putting all the passengers onto one bus and running the other two light to get back on time?



This isn't a one off though, it's all of the time. There seems to be no plan aside from trying to plough on regardless, which was much my experience when I was unfortunate to live in a village served by Arriva. It doesn't matter if you can see it on an app or whatever, the bus still isn't there when you're expecting it to be, and that's a huge issue to anyone using public transport.

To use Metro as another example, they seem to have been using this 'availability of trains' line for a good while now. Whilst we get and understand that new stock is on the way, again it comes down to an inability to change from the norm. Why not look at options such as a temporary suspension of the airport or lesser used Sunderland branch, then look at procuring bus replacements until new stock can start being fed into the network? That should leave enough trains to comfortably support a core frequency across the network.

Finally on convenience, I just don't think we accept that public transport isn't convenient to the vast majority that may want to use it. Don't take my word for it; look at the trends of car ownership and use compared to bus journeys. Unless you're fortunate enough to live a short walk from a Metro station, or you have a frequent direct bus to where you need to be, you're falling into the bracket of being inconvenienced. Living in Washington, if I want to connect to the Metro system, its now around a 35 minute journey. If you don't live on the route of the 4, then add your connecting bus and up to 15 minutes wait for the 4, and it's very close to an hour. Most days, from any point in Washington, it's around 20 minutes by car.

Then you have the issues with antisocial behaviour, especially on the Metro. You generally aren't aware of any of that when you use a car, and why would you even dream of switching if that's what the reality is? I've been on Metros on an evening before, if I'm travelling back by train, and you've got kids running a mock everywhere. One example a couple of weeks ago, we had kids smoking, others using the grab rails as a climbing frame, and another pissing about on an office chair they'd brought from somewhere.


Absolutely not, but the lack of ambition from within Transport North East is absolutely astonishing. I couldn't believe how yesterday's announcement was celebrated. Not only did we only receive about 20% of what the Bus Service Improvement Plan, written to Government spec, required, but we're now to the low bar of celebrating money that was promised to us 14 months ago, taken away, and then repurposed as something else. 

Until we have local authorities that are willing to stand up and call a spade a spade, then we're going to be repeatedly kicked in the nuts by the Tories. 


I understand that when Metro are having issues, they ask bus operators for ticket acceptance, and it's done at a cost. I wonder if bus operators asked Metro to consider ticket acceptance to allow them to turn services at Gateshead, for example? 

I used the Metro on Thursday, and even whilst it was really busy due to missing peak time services and an increased demand, we all managed to get on the first Metro that arrived and I was in/out of town within 15 minutes.


I don't think the Metro is any worse than bus operations. I'd personally not rely on either if I had to get a fixed train or I had a set time to be in work, and I'd always aim to get there around 45-60 minutes ahead of schedule to account for any issues. This shouldn't be how we think when using public transport.

On your example of communication, when I was travelling into Newcastle to go into the office on Thursday, I questioned the lack of communication from Go North East. When I purchased my ticket, the app showed no issues or delays, nor did the website or social media. The statement of delays only went up around 07.41, which is no good for anyone travelling early, and it never actually appeared on the app. That fire and road closure had been in place since the following evening, so I'm lost as to why it takes so long to get communication out? If I knew in advance, I'd have bought different tickets to what I did.

The fares system for the network as a whole is a bit bonkers, and is largely a product of not wanting to do anything different to the last 30+ years. Tap on/Tap off, or contactless fares, have been running for almost 20 years in London now, yet I think it's only Arriva that have a working system up here? It being isolated is a problem in itself, as it's something that should have really been rolled out network wide, including to the Metro and heavy rail services in the area.

Honestly can't disagree with anything you said there to be fair and haven't really got anything to add for most of it as you've hit the nail in the head. 

Mind talking about comparing to others, I know I have a tendency to slag off Nexus - they deserve it imo but one thing that's glaringly obvious is the lack of connection between everything and it throws the operators under the bus a bit.

For example if I went to Manchester I can go on TFGM bus site and do a simple search where I want to go and it's as easy as that. Come to the North East I'd have to trawl through the Arriva site, the Stagecoach site, the GoNorthEast site and then it's no use as Gateshead Taxis run it since the Nexus site is absolutely useless. 

That for a passenger is a game over. It's all good saying how good the GNE app but it's no use if you need to use multiple operators. Also the fact the North East still doesn't have any form of site to bus multi modal tickets is embarrassing. We must be the only region without on. (Network One you can't buy online and must use an operators app - confusing if you use multiple operators). 

It's something you can't slag the operators off for as it's a grey area how much they can talk. The fact they've now got their own little partnership (NEBus) probably highlights the failings of above. Surely this should be a Nexus thing? We must be the only region that has that - happy to be corrected.