(10 Feb 2025, 6:49 pm)Storx wrote 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
Could add Park Lane to that list too, at least for the Stagecoach stuff. To their credit GNE continue to run most of their services via it whereas Stagecoach only ever did in one direction (can't remember which now!) and then pulled out altogether to save the usage fee. Whether it's tightness from an operator or stupidity from Nexus in charging operators out of the infrastructure, I fear it goes to show doesn't matter whether private or public run, decisions will be made for the benefit of the balance sheet, not the public.