(19 Dec 2025, 4:27 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote Think you’re comparing apples and pears with the bus lanes vs road infrastructure mind.  The obvious difference being the reality (inconvenient as it may be for some).  There are plenty of car journeys meaning (once the improvement works are done) a large proportion of the population gain a significant benefit.  Compared to bus lanes where there are ever fewer scheduled services using them, running to fewer places, less often – and which may or may not turn up and get you from A to B without breaking down.  The reason people see bus lanes as a waste of money is that there are so few buses on the road to use them even compared to 10 years ago let alone the peak after deregulation.  And that downward trend has been sustained and increasing over that time, so highly unlikely to change with or without bus lanes.  Increasing priority for something that runs so poorly and infrequently (and for some expensively) as is the case in many parts of our region is very likely just wasteful.

You've largely reaffirmed my point. Whilst I agree with some of your criticism around buses, it's still that snobbery towards public transport (and active travel, for that matter) that questions every penny of investment. You simply don't get that with other infrastructure projects. 

If we're going to encourage more people to use public transport or active travel modes, then it has to be a lot better, doesn't it? I don't blame private car owners for not wanting to use it in it's current state and cost, but that doesn't mean that investment in that infrastructure isn't important to build it to a point where people are happy to use it.

The Northumberland Line, which I mentioned in my previous post, has been a real success story for the region. Politicians prepared to take a financial gamble on the benefits reported, yet it's completely exceeded everyone's expectations. So much so that the Council is being inundated in enquiries about development alongside the line. There's dozens of places across the region that you could do the same and achieve results.