I appreciate that having to change buses has disadvantages too, but anything more than an hourly service at somewhere like Burnhope is pretty unrealistic. In any case, I strongly suspect most Burnhope passengers don't travel across Stanley on the 6, so would be unaffected (ie they are just travelling locally or changing onto other services). The buses to Newcastle etc are obviously much more frequent than hourly, so it's essentially the return that is the potential problem if the incoming bus runs late. If we are dreaming of a more perfect world, there could be a system of a guaranteed taxi back-up for a failed connection, which seems more realistic. Or even better, more radical bus priority to avoid the delays. Or failing that, an operating regime with more back-up resources to allow a substitute bus to come into service when needed.