(23 Jun 2025, 8:16 pm)L469 YVK wrote Don't want to go off on a tangent as your last point is more of a GNE issue.....but Derwentside is an area that could benefit from some "easy peasy" usable services (i.e every 30 minutes) that could create growth and simplify the network rather than a myriad of routes / variations like now. Featham did that in Blyth & Ashington under his tenure at Arriva and it mostly worked. Effectively, the ones you mentioned in another GNE thread.

I don't think Leadgate & Medomsley via the MetroCentre is one for Northstar, as that's effectively just a variation of the X45/47 which is a GNE stronghold and effectively mirroring the same common corridor not offering a great deal different.

But......if you look at the number of workers along Scotswood Road and Newcastle Business Park, Newcastle College etc and the lack of a fast service from Prudhoe, Crawcrook, Ryton and Stella, a resurrection of the old 604 could be a shout.

Heck, I don't know how W.Bay to West Allotment would work in terms of commercial viability / funding, but the 350/351 between West Allotment and Newcastle has potential as a commercial operation if run properly!

See if I was them I'd probably continue with the Metrocentre link and look North of the water. The links to the inner West are non-existent to the Metrocentre without doubling back via Newcastle which is now expensive thanks to the 100 being binned (need multi operator). 

Like something like an Airport to Metrocentre with 2 buses running via the West End imo could do well like so: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/55.03675...50!1m0!3e0

There's enough on the route where people might want to go aswell, ie. General Hospital, West Road, Benwell, Kingston Park and St. James Retail Park which have their own little demands aswell.

It's the sort of route where Newcastle's BSIP money would be well used imo since both the airport and Metrocentre are major employment sites and both are a bit of a struggle from the West End (unless you work overnight ironically).