(14 Apr 2026, 9:28 pm)Storx wrote imo the better thing would be to curtail the Q3 short with the 18 extended back to Wallsend which should give them an extra 5 minutes, each run. Both the Q3 and 18 are subsidised between those points and the Q3 does nothing majorly unique which you can't do with the existing commercial 12 in the area (okay you'd lose links to the Quayside but it's not vital).
Getting rid of the 18 would be a bad idea though as you'd lose links to the Freeman which imo are more important.
It's ridiculous the tax payer is funding 5 buses between St Peter's and Wallsend when there's a commercial route round that area doing the same thing aswell.
Im still convinced that with a bit of jiggery pokery, the 32/32A could do it if the 18 were to ever get binned (which ngl, i can see happening), suppose atleast it would actually give the 32A a purpose, i remember rightly, the 18 (and 19) were the birthchildren of merging in the 00's i want to say between 2003 and 2005 when the 20/20A/34/35/35A/61/62A/62B/64/64A were all axed, i think it was 2006/2007 that the 19 was axed and it just became the 18, then it was left alone a good ten or so years until it was prodded and poked at again to become pretty much what it is now