(16 Apr 2024, 7:31 pm)L469 YVK wrote And ever since the original 44 was withdrawn (Hazlerigg - Whitley Bay).....both Arriva & GNE have been guilty of a 'pack em in and make them late' mentality! The East of North Tyneside & Seaton Sluice has badly been screaming out of an express. Considering the 308 was at one point (excl any Stagecoach routes) the most profitable behind GNE's 21 which has a parallel express (X21).

My biggest gripe is lets say a 308 or 309 are running in pairs Blyth to New York or Billy Mill. They either keep chasing each other....or in GNE's case, SDC kicks passengers onto the one behind making them even more later. Don't know what the insurance implications are for carrying NIS (maybe Dan would be able to answer that) but surely the driver should say "if you want Newcastle stay on, or if wanting anywhere en-route, jump on the one behind".

See personally, I think the 308 should terminate short at Whitley Bay, it's really not needed beyond there. The X7 is the express route pretty much. What is needed though is better Metro links, like personally, I'd look at curtailing the 351 short so it's Whitley Bay to Holystone only, and upping the thing considerable say every 15/20 minutes and use the Metro links instead, you could make a similar case for the 359 aswell and scrap the 354 through to Newcastle.

There's too many buses avoiding Metro stations and going magical on a mystery tour to Newcastle but unless the services are frequent enough, people won't change as it's too risky changing onto an hourly bus, even every 30 minutes is touch and go.

There's no need for a million buses heading to Newcastle imo and it's not unique to this area either. The X46 and Q3 are two other prime examples with the Regent Centre on the doorstep. You could even go further and do the 44/45 aswell, heading from the Grainger Market, it's actually quicker to change already anyway by the time you trundle through to Haymarket.