(21 Apr 2026, 3:09 pm)logidoodah wrote With the 700/701 now needing to be transferred to GNE after City Transport dropped the contract. And having sneakily dropped the frequency to 20 mins sometime in 2026.

While they're at it why couldn't they just combine the 700/701 from being a combined PVR = 3, to a simple 700 PVR = 3. 

Simple loop of Park Lane - City Campus - Royal Hospital - City Campus - Wheatsheaf - Seaburn - St Peters - Park Lane. 

This would:

• get rid of the horrific 45 mins freq on the 700 currently, and keep the current 701
  
• make the service usable with decent layover spread across the route.
  
• introduce links lost from the 18 to Royal Hospital making it actually a connections service
  
• and provide the same PVR with easier to understand service. 
  
• With it being about an hour for the same bus to restart it's loop from Park Lane means easy for evenings/Saturdays when no uni for frequency to be dropped to 30/60mins when required without need to or route.
  

I know this would mean slightly longer journey times to each main destination i.e going around hospital before Seaburn and Seaburn before st peters but with an enhanced freq and better punctuality people won't mind. Also this service shouldn't compete with the commercial services anyways. Just simply the Sunderland Connect to get you to university, town, seaburn or the hospital.
The current arrangement is fine it satisfies both the residents in seaburn and students.

The problem is the majority of students wish to take the current 701. They want a short journey from the likes of clanny/city hall/city campus straight to st peters as opposed to having to ride around seaburn.
The 20 min frequency has been a life saver as 30 min round trips are completely impossible due to traffic/volume of passengers.