(24 Jul 2025, 8:02 am)Storx wrote Not sure I agree with that with the 37/38 personally.
imo the 18 should be extended from Longbenton upto Cramlington instead of the 37, it offers new links which the 37 doesn't which is basically just an extended X8 route wise. There probably isn't many people but someone might want to go to Byker, Heaton or Walker from Cramlington or Burradon, they don't want to go to Newcastle via the Freeman.
Personally I'd look at something like this:
which is this, all every 20 minutes bar the 18 which is every 30 minutes:
18: Cramlington to Walker (Purple)
37: Killingworth to Denton Burn via Quorum (Dark Green)
38: Killingworth to Denton Burn via Forest Hall (Light Green)
62: Killingworth to Throckley (Light Red)
63: Meadway to Callerton via Benton Square (Dark Red)
64: Four Lane Ends to Chapel House
X63: Peak Only, 37 is quick enough other times
11: Terminate short at West Denton
It means you get extra capacity on the 62/63 on the core which is overbussed and also moves some people onto the quieter 37/38 so splits the loads out better. I haven't worked it out but wouldn't be surprised if it's not far off being PVR neutral, even less during the day since the X63 is binned off which isn't really needed nowadays.
Edit: The 18/37/38 are meant to be going via the Freeman not Matthew Bank, can't be bothered to fix it.
Out of all of these, there's only 2 i disagree with and thats the 37/38 and the 63, 18 would swap with the 37 to Cramlington, then I'd do this, after F.L.E turn the 37/38 into circuits serving Killingworth East Bailey, Backworth, Northumberland Park , Cobalt, West Allotment, Holystone, Forest Hall (omitting Meadway), Benton
63 reduce to half hourly, bit of clever planning between GNE and Stagecoach could maintain the 15 minute frequency
64 extend that to Meadway in place of the 38 half hourly