(01 Dec 2023, 7:26 pm)Storx wrote If that's true, I'm not sure about them wasting 'investment' money on upping a bus service from every 15 minute to 12 minutes.
The point of the BSIP was about long term improvements to areas that don't have a service at all. Stuff like the 8, X24/X34 (evenings) and 434 I totally get as they're unserved at those times.
Same could be said about the X16 at Morpeth tbh.
That wasn’t the whole point of the BSIP.
You can read the Transport North East’s BSIP below:
https://www.transportnortheast.gov.uk/wp...v-25-2.pdf
Pages 11 and 12 cover network.
Presumably ‘Superbus’ has had to be scaled back (based on lower budget allocation and operators’ availability of staff), but service 56 would certainly fit a slightly scaled back version of the green category.
It seems sensible in my view for Nexus/Transport North East to use some of this subsidy to improve frequencies on routes like the 56, which are likely to be commercially viable after a year or so (when paired with other improvements covered by the BSIP such as improved fares and infrastructure).
Perhaps at the point which a 12-minute frequency becomes commercially viable, the next iteration would be to ‘pump prime’ an improved 10-minute frequency.
I am sure we will see Local Authorities use BSIP funding to do new things on the network too (I am sure operators and Local Authorities alike agree with some of the comments made on this forum previously about how little the network has evolved in our region) - indeed there are tender opportunities live at the moment.
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