The main draw of the 19 when I used it was as a peak time service from Cramlington, Deleval and Seghill to Cobalt. It is still very useful for that. It covers more of Cramlington than the 353, plus direct from Deleval and Seghill and also goes all the way through Cobalt (that said, if the 353 was not at the same time, that would be better!)

The hospital link definitely makes sense so I am all for that. Going direct from Seaton Deleval to Seghill also makes sense since the high school closed, that was the main draw for the diversion through the estate, to go right outisde the school.

It is a pretty quiet service outside peaks, and I guess that is due to the 57A being around the same time at the Cramlington end for short journeys. There is very small demand end to end.

I kind of found the link Cramlington - Percy Main metro useful as a good way to do the Cramlington - Wallsend journey since they dropped the direct bus that way. I don't really use the 19 much now, but am happy with the changes, although don't know much about the North Shields town centre end of it.

As for the 342 if GNE have given it up again comercially, they should not be eligible to bid to run it again under Nexus. This is the 2nd time in about 3 years they have given up commercially on that route, and it seems they only took it on to avoid someone else getting the service. The Nexus timetable is better I think as when GNE delayed the departure from Wallsend from 3:50 until 4:01, a small change in theory, the 4:01 is often impacted much worse by traffic than when it left earlier. 10 minutes makes a big difference in traffic. I still use that section of route, so is no real major change, but the Kingston Park end changes look sensible I would say.