(8 hours ago)Nerd4321 wrote Its what confused me so much. Arriva pushed with this funding and have done well with it. Extra bus to Ashington replacing what was the morning & evening 52 journeys. 43 now going to Morpeth every 30. Giving residents in Morpeth a direct link to Airport instead of having to get the metro from Regent or Newcastle (if your that odd). The 415/460 Giving people links on a Saturday to do shopping, Giving people the opportunity to vist Wallington Hall & extending the 434. All works well
But what to Stagecoach & GNE do. Let's up the frequency on a route cause we can. The 21 & 1 now carry a lot of dust now due to the fact they run every 7 minutes and most the time end up following the other bus anyway.
Ive been in town most days to see three 1s together or two 21s together. Like did it really need a every 7 minute frequency. Like i cant suspect a lot of people are using the 21 between Newcastle & Chester 6 days a week and the 1 between Coach Lane & the West end
Aye totally agreed to be honest; not going to lie I've always been surprised they haven't curtailed some of the 21's shorter than Chester Le Street. They're really not busy at that end of the route, especially beyond Birtley Morrisons, but the Low Fell section probably does deserve the more frequent service. With CLS depot shut, you could arguably turn them anywhere now really. Ironic because the housing 2 streets behind have a token hourly service Mon - Sat Daytimes to Newcastle.
The 1 is one hell of an annoying route imo; used to live on it at the far end of Heaton when I was at uni and it just takes forever stopping at every bus stop (used to walk to the Coast Road like a few others did) - which causes the stacking, it is very busy though tbf. The route probably does warrant being 8 buses an hour though; just not sure why the tax payer is paying for it though. A student isn't going to not use it either way.
Very surprised the route hasn't had electrics though considering where it goes, I'd imagine the residential streets in Heaton would massively appreciate them as the Diesel E400's aren't quiet outside your door 16 times an hour and I'm not someone who is generally bothered by stuff like that (have a flight path here).