(03 Apr 2024, 1:47 pm)Ex-conductor wrote GNE should never have been awarded the contract for the 317, given that they abandoned that same route (numbered 11 at the time), two years ago. I live on the route and found the service was very reliable when Stagecoach had it. Now it's a shambles, typical of the way in which GNE have carried on at the coastal area for a long time. Yesterday they were running a double-decker branded for the DFDS ferries, one branded for the North Tyne Rockets (why wasn't this on the 352, 353 or 354?), and one in corporate livery. What a mess. One other point on delays: the 317 was the amalgamation of two routes many years ago when GNE merged the Whitley Bay - North Shields section with the North Shields - Wallsend section (originally the 313). In order to make the 317 more reliable, particularly with connections to and from the ferry, I would suggest that the 2 parts of the route are re-established as separate services. As I understand it, it was the very indirect route through High Howdon which was causing delays.
Can't really stop them as it's all done by tenders so it's just the lowest bid. Be illegal otherwise.
Kind of agree with the split service though, but I'd extend them somewhere else to make them actual useful, especially the Wallsend side of it which duplicates the Metro bar connecting local estates to two places most people don't want to be as, politely, they're crap.