(20 Feb 2024, 9:10 am)Storx wrote Honestly don't disagree with that all if I had to be honest, totally agreed thought. The old Rowntree Food site would be an ideal place to be served by the 'Green Line' Metro night bus, it's pretty much directly inbetween the Fawdon and Kingston Park.
Bizarrely the best route at night would probably be the new 35 route but extending from Fawdon through to the airport via Kingston Park. Doesn't make much money during the day since it duplicates the Metro mostly, but take the Metro away and the thing becomes a lot more attractive.
I think that would probably be the best case for a night network, replicate the metro, but using existing bus routes already keep. For Sunderland, keep the 56 as its already in use and goes past Nissan, 27 for South Tyneside, I'm not an expert north of the Tyne except the metro replacement routes, but two buses to Whitley Bay using either side of the loop, and that 35 but extended to the Airport. I don't think they need to follow the metro precisely but roughly through the areas served.
Hopefully if franchising happens they can do something like this, and integrate metro tickets through the night.