(10 Feb 2025, 4:47 pm)Adrian wrote I think once we have franchising (and hopefully, eventually public ownership), then I think we can start to take a strategic view of how routes, vehicles and infrastructure all play a part in the passenger journey.
It's been difficult under privatisation, and it inevitably comes down to a chicken/egg situation. Where lots of money has been invested in infrastructure, it ends up underused or not at all, because there's a complete disconnect between operators, the PTE and Local Authorities. Gateshead and Centrelink is a cracking example of that, but there's numerous others, such as the West-bound bus lane on the Felling bypass between Lingey Lane junction and Heworth Interchange.
Anyone who used the Washington services in the 1990s will remember how bad that traffic used to get, yet since the journeys were sped up, frequencies and services were cut. Why would any council want to invest on the basis the operator could change their mind, and more to the point, how would they ever build a business case to seek Govt funding.
I'm not too sure either mind. Our local bodies haven't exactly had the best track record either like mentioning Centrelink there.
The scheme is utterly stupid since the vast majority of people want to be in Newcastle and it effectively bypasses the place and heading towards Gateshead it goes away from the bus station so is actually longer to use.
It's not the only thing either, the Silverlink Bus Lane is another, now totally unused pretty much, not to mention the P&R at The Great Park so you can sit on a bus to Newcastle, or you could use your brain and drive 1/2 mile down the road to The Regent Centre and use a much quicker and frequent Metro service instead.
It's not just old stuff either, since there's recent things like:
- North Shields Interchange - Buses avoiding the thing because it's too far out the way to resource extra buses and would significantly increase the time for punters further down the route with no benefit for those customers either (306 in particular)
- Potential Angel P&R - Won't be used if people are expected to use local bus services.
- Rebuilding Gateshead Interchange - Why...?
- Gateshead Flyover - Unacceptable
- Metrocentre P&R - Complete waste of tax payer funds
If we're bringing Teesside into it:
- A fantasy airport