(28 Dec 2023, 11:37 pm)L469 YVK wrote 'The Metro mini's'
To be honest......this wouldn't be the worst idea in the world! Surely this is what the BSIP should be used for and backed by by TNE.
As you say with through ticketing and proper integration including timetabling, could be onto a winner.
Yeah totally just makes more sense to me rather than having stuff like the 351 and 354 which go around every housing estate in the world, get delayed at some point - usually at the Newcastle end and as a result regulation kicks in and everything is screwed up.
Northumberland Park is a perfectly fine exchange and within the next year or so will have 6 Metro's an hour plus 2 direct train services to Newcastle Central, it's not as if it's connecting to somewhere like Seaham with 1 train an hour.
Like I'd do something similar for Wallsend, with something like the below working with GNE and their 41:
The green route being a faster 317 but serving parts of Rosehill, bolted onto the end of either the Q3 or 18 (extended to Wallsend instead of the Q3) then a super local service (purple) which gets parts of the 317, 335, 342, 351 and 354 (none would be replaced) but as one long loop so especially in the Killingworth area people can cross over and get the Quorum links.
Some will winge that they have to change at either Four Lane Ends or Wallsend but they're clearly not using it anyway and again it keeps it away from Newcastle so their not impacted by delays. It makes more sense than now than having a terminus of Hadrian Park and the 342 which goes from everywhere in the world (that would be curtailed at Killingworth).