(6 hours ago)Michael Euston wrote A point of view from a 'random' that lives in Brotton. Arriva provide a good service with the 5 that gets me to Skelton, Guisborough and Boro. And the X4 with the new Evoras up and down to coast to Whitby, Saltburn, Redcar and Boro again. What's missing is a link to Skelton retail park with Asda, Aldi, B and M and others. The Stagecoach buses miss the High Street and go up the bypass before dropping in to the hospital grounds. Fine for me but not so more elderly and frail residents. A simple re-routing of the 1 and 2 and the service would be used more. Same for re-routing through North Skelton and New Skelton. It costs £500,000 a year so surely it makes sense to make it more reachable. As for James Cook Hospital for residents of East Cleveland. I swap buses at Ormesby. But would it be so difficult for every other 5 to go down Marton Road and one of the 63s go down the 5 route?
Like I said, the bus from Brotton to Skelton retail park is a fair shout, and worth a try if it can be done without too much hassle. However, realistically every time a village in the area asks for a bus service and get one, they don't use it in any great numbers. Brotton may turn out to be different than Loftus, Skinningrove and Easington whose residents all were demanding a bus there, but when they got one don't bother using it.
Re-routing one of the 5's to serve Marton Road would just create a mess of a timetable and have a knock on effect on the stops it would miss down Ormesby Bank. Many more people use all those stops than would want to go from East of Guisborough to Marton Road or the hospital.
If you live in Guisborough, you can already get a direct bus to the hospital. Anywhere else you just change at Ormesby roundabout, Redcar, Guisborough or Middlesbrough Bus station to go to James Cook. Plenty of options.