(11 hours ago)Busadvocate wrote re Centrelink: only slightly tongue in cheek, was this not a case of a poor scheme in the first place?  I suspect it was case of "we want to do something; this is something that can be done (using ring-fenced special funding?), so let's do it" . Do we really think the world would be better if buses were forced to go that way?

imo it shouldn't be tongue and cheek. It's just another of a long list of things which means you can't fully trust the local leaders to actually run the service better. It was always setup to fail since it goes away from the two major bus areas (Gateshead / Newcastle) and serves absolutely nothing on the way. It's not like it's the only thing in recent years which is similar. This is nothing to do with the bus companies and is just anti commercial operation for the sake of it imo as no bus route should be using it as it's a detour for the sake of a detour. 

I'm not saying the current lot will do it, but we really don't need schemes like that full stop but then again the 4 councils South of the water have a manifesto of blocking any anti car measures so...