(28 Jun 2025, 9:50 pm)Malarkey wrote Looks like Lobley Hill Estate (South) won the argument with GNE as they were essentially cutting a direct service from the estate to Newcastle as the proposed Hourly 95 which was terminating at Gateshead.
Personally I would suggested extending the proposed 95 and existing service 96 from Gateshead into Newcastle (Market Street) as a reasonable replacement with the X32 being more of direct express along the A692 (Lobley Hill Road) and would've also provided an improved service from Lobley Hill Road to Newcastle with a Bus at a combined frequency of Every 10 Minutes if you included the "Coaster 1 (301)".
GNE could've also have done a service serving both North/South sides of Lobley Hill Estate:
95 - Newcastle (Market Street) - Gateshead Interchange - Bensham Court Flats - Team Valley Maingate - Lobley Hill (Beechword Gardens) - Lobley Hill (Romanwood Gardens) - Lobley Hill (Rothbury/Meldon Gardens) - Lobley Hill (Gragside Gardens) - Lobley Hill (Malvern Gardens) - Lobley Hill (Moorfoot Gardens) - Lobley Hill (Chiltern Gardens) - Team Valley Maingate - Bensham Court Flats - Gateshead Interchange - Newcastle (Market Street)
Replying here as it's the right place, personally I'd do the opposite and split the 301/97 again and merge the 96/X32 into it so you'd end up with a network something like this:
6: Newcastle to Stanley, additionally serving Laburnum Drive (Every 30 Minutes)
96: Gateshead to Metrocentre (Every 30 Minutes)
97: Gateshead (only) to Metrocentre additionally serving Lobley Hill (Every 30 Minutes)
X97: Newcastle to Whickham Loop via Dunston Hill (Every 30 Minutes)
X30/X31/X70/X71: All via Lobley Hill serving all stops until Saltwell Road
X32: Omit Lobley Hill and join A1 at Team Valley and give a true express from Stanley to Newcastle (Hourly)
96/97: Every 15 minutes combined
There's more than enough buses crossing the water from Gateshead to Newcastle, we don't need more. What you do with the 301, is open and it sorts the mess of the X30/X31/X32/X70/X71/X72 all going different ways and being generally quite confusing.