(02 Jul 2026, 3:52 pm)Nerd4321 wrote 350 is a way quicker bus to Whitley Bay and skips out all the estates the 351 does
W2 absolutely no way of what your thinking and here's why
The W2 to me is a perfect little route that a lot of people use and take into Whitley Bay. Lets take an example here. Say you were to withdraw the W2 and replace it with a 30 mins 351. What happens if the 351 is cancelled. Or is heavily delayed due to something or the bus broke down
With the W2 being its own little service (yea it doesn't go far) but its that little lifeline for the people who need it. I can understand why neuxs wont consultate to withdraw it
Same thing could be said about the M71 which returned for a year and was possed to be withdrawn in March but has seen an up in passengers. The problem is nexus dont advertised these services. Say the M71 was ran by Stagecoach or GNE then people would use it more but cause its ran by GCT nobody knows about it
Nah I get what you're saying about the W2, but I just think prioritising the 351 would be better, you have to remember it was commercial until quite recently so who knows if you make one route attractive you might end up with a situation where the other route can be subsidised aswell.
Like just picking out Benton ASDA, it's borderline unusable on the 351 from somewhere like Shiremoor as you either have 26 or 86 minutes to do your shopping which is either too short/too long. 56 minutes on the other hand would be about on the nail. Hourly services are just really unattractive, unless you have time to burn as if you just miss a bus for whatever reason then it's turned into an ultra long commute.
They really should be serving Northumberland Park aswell, for connections to the Metro/Train. It doesn't give you much hope when Kim McGuiness bangs about integration yet their buses drive straight past the interchanges.
(Btw for reference I know someone at East Benton Rise and have been meaning to go round to his at times, but always put it off because it's challenging to connect to the 351 because of the above)