As an outsider, I guarantee you wouldn't have the first idea how to make best use of the Stagecoach services that call at Throckley. There is so much more more the 22.

Having already done it however, I can tell you how absolutely wonderful it was to be able to spend one lazy Saturday in the summer taking in a walk along the south side of the Tyne to view the Dunston staithes and stop at the local Cafe for a mid-morning coffee, then walk a few yards to catch the Tyne Valley Ten to Corbridge in time for a lazy lunch and wander, confident I could catch a very fast bus home in the form of the 685, without missing a second of that afternoon's match.

The only reason I know about the Dunston Cafe is from biking the Tyne. The only reason I know Corebridge is from my necessarily in depth knowledge of the Stagecoach routes that pass close to me. 

The only part of this journey I have never had any need or indeed opportunity to research or generally observe, is the TTT, whose utility to me up up that point had only ever been as a means to get from town to the MetroCentre, cursing the loss of the 100 and the ignorant GNE drivers to whom a Day Rider, paper or digital, is apparently a complete mystery.

I had the opportunity to notice it earlier that summer during an earlier visit to Corbridge because funnily enough, the bright brash livery is well suited to making it very easy to notice when it is in a place you hadn't expected it to be, and indeed the branding reassured me that at that moment, it was where it was supposed to be. 

That stuck with me. That branding is quite literally the only reason I planned that itinerary that Saturday. And when I say plan, it didn't involve poring over network maps and studying timetables, because I already knew from general observation that the TTT is a frequent route.

I only even looked up the precise location and times of the stop in Dunston when I was finishing my coffee, and only because I didn't want to be looking for and standing at a stop needlessly. But if necessary, I knew if I simply left and went north, I would find a stop somewhere and a bus would be along eventually.

If GNE debrands the TTT, then they are losing custom like that. Bearing in mind they do charge a pretty penny even for single journeys like that, and it will presumably be even more if the drivers get their wish. Because my idea of a fun Saturday morning is absolutely not getting deeply intimate with the GNE app, studying where I can and cannot get to in a reasonable time frame.