(29 Jan 2025, 9:37 pm)Aaron21 wrote Right few things again 

Why does the 43 not need to go to Morpeth 

Quite overkill IMO and will Arriva have sufficient PVR factored in as part of the EV decker order for the 43/44/45? The Morpeth extension would work perfect and bump the driving hours up to make it worth while. 

Why does the 353 have too

See above and the Morpeth extension would open up a fair few useful links. As you said, the 353 is a strong service and actually warrants a 30 minute frequency.

Why should the X63 be a peak service 

Fair enough, the slog through Gosforth at peak times is no good. But off peak, a 54 doing the Killingworth loop and serving the old 356/54 would make way more commercial sense. Maybe a 20 minute frequency to compensate for the loss of the X63?

Who in the right mind riding the 356 is gonna remember the old 356

Quite a lot of people especially given how closely it mirrors the old 356 route. The 354 is effectively a like for like replacement of the 356.

U have to remember the 43 to Morpeth is doing extremely well since it's every 30 mins & runs there evenings & Sundays

And so would the 353.

Idk how rerouting the 353 via High Pit and Hospital instead of Dudley would make absolutely any sense to you "making me think u don't live anywhere near the 353". The 353 (ex arriva 53) has always been the strongest route as it's not duplicates anything and is a direct link from Cramlington to North Shields via Killingworth/Forest Hall & Shiremoor/New York. Sending the 353 to Morpeth would be suicide as it just wouldn't work. Neither would routing it via the Hospital or High Pit for that matter. Cramlington has 2 buses that run to the hospital on a weekday & one on a Sunday. If they wanted to a new link would have been created with the 57A/19/X8 but they haven't. There ain't a demand for the hospital at Cramlington. I barely see anyone get off it. And I've used the 58 a lot recently & 57.

Not enough people using hospital stops, as hardly anything useful serves NESCH. The 353 is a perfect route to re-route via NESCH and High Pit instead of Dudley Lane. The 353 also carries quite a lot of 'twirles' (especially North Shields to Shiremoor and I'd imagine other places too). The 353 also being sent to Morpeth wouldn't be suicide as it would still serve Cramlington, whilst opening up a hell of a lot of useful links.

Given GNE's changes......if I was in Arriva's shoes right now and had some decent Pulsars / StreetLites, I'd be looking to capitalise on the loss of the 352 and launch a competing service against the 353. Wouldn't surprise me if an operator decided to do this given what Stagecoach effectively did against the 352/355 with the 37/38.