(15 Oct 2025, 8:16 pm)DodgepotMcDougal wrote Appreciate this may come under service suggestion and It will obviously depend on where there is a critical mass of people, but I'd like to see Lothian Buses style peak X express services mirroring the main routes as part of the solution. Although they'd probably be oversubscribed!

Something like a 56X from the estates of Washington (not the Galleries) and fast to Newcastle, a 10X from Crawcrook, avoiding Blaydon and fast via Scotswood Road or 27X from Lukes Lane, Monkton Lane and Pelaw then fast to Newcastle. Places unconnected with the Metro where the standard bus route takes way too long to be attractive.

This absolutely needs to be part of the solution, and it's really down to short-sightedness that it's not. 

If you take routes like the X1/56 for example, they're absolutely heaving going towards Newcastle on a morning, and most of the traffic is going to Gateshead or Newcastle colleges. Surely a better solution for this, and other examples, is to actually run dedicated college services. We know the model works, as we do it already with schools.

(16 Oct 2025, 9:10 am)Shrek wrote It'll be interesting to see when the peak would be for the new government hub in Newcastle. Most of the staff will probably be on flexi time, my office has that and people drift in any time between 7-10am and leave any time between 3.30-7pm. It could be hard to judge when that peak will come from there.

Yeah, most (if not all) will be on flexi. The HMRC staff, which I understand will form the bulk of the staff in there, have operational hours of between 7am-8pm under normal circumstances. Some other departments have different hours, but DWP (who will be one of the Pilgrim Place tenants) are broadly similar. 

(16 Oct 2025, 5:49 pm)MurdnunoC wrote I've said this before, but, instead of all the humming and harring about building a P&R site at Eighton Lodge, Follingsby Park offers a better solution, in my opinion. 

Irrespective of whether the Leamside Line or the Wearside Loop are ever constructed in full, a relatively short spur from Pelaw utilising either heavy or light rail (heavy rail would be probably easier and cheaper as it's still sort of connected to the network although heavily mothballed) could easily service the site with shuttles into Newcastle. 

The space is there and it's easily accessible from the south via the A194(M), and could also be useful for Washington and the A182 corridor. If the road between Nissan and Follingsby is ever upgraded, it could also service traffic coming from the A19 too. 

None of the above is really achievable with the Eighton Lodge site. Any railway station near Lamesley or Team Valley would be still be quite a distance away from where the P&R site is earmarked to be, and even if the buses manage to navigate a traffic-free route along Durham Road, through Gateshead, and across the Tyne, it's still probably a 20 minute journey.

I think both are required, and what's a better solution really depends where you're driving from. 

I'd hope that part of the Wearside Loop construction, immediate focus is placed on getting the Follingsby Park and Ride open on that short spur.