(05 Nov 2025, 11:15 am)V514DFT wrote Yep, they should of saw the potential in the 35x services, its been clear to me from day 1 that the only service they really wanted is the 355, likely why the rest are all hourly, they've already pretty much killed off the 352, the 353 is hourly when really it should be half hourly, the 354 to North Shields is not needed, if it is so much of a problem then swap it back over again pre 2013, ie
353 to Whitley Bay, 354 to North Shields, the 355 should also be swapped back to its route in the days of the 55 and the 354, you guessed it reverted to route in the days of the 356 (but half hourly this time)
I know this should be GNE, but the 355 would be better being merged with the 57 South of the water imo and give some Cross Tyne links, especially since it serves the Freeman so everytime the Metro goes kaput you could take the £££ from it and would help with the forced interworking patterns since there's nothing round to work with it.
Not sure about the 353 every 30 minutes though, personally I'd flip stuff around ie.
342: Every Hour: Newcastle Airport to Wallsend (extend from Kingston Park to Airport from timetabling reasons)
343: Every Hour: Cramlington to Wallsend (extend short to Cramlington via 342/353 route)
353: Every Hour: Killingworth to North Shields via Forest Hall
354: Every Hour: Killingworth to North Shields via Backworth
356: Every Hour: Newcastle to Whitley Bay (354/356 Merged)
57: Every 30 Minutes: Forest Hall to Wardley
The Killingworth to Cramlington service is lost to the Stagecoach 37 so imo, there's no point chasing it with the 353 and Cramlington to North Shields / Cobalt is covered by the faster 19 now so again no point chasing that either.
There's no Wallsend to Cramlington service though.