(10 Jul 2026, 10:45 am)Baywatcher wrote As a regular user of the 10/11 I agree with the suggestion of reducing the length of the route, I would remove the mile end road loop, also the journey via the interchange to cheviot road section and hill park estate.
The mile end road to cheviot road is long enough to have at least an hourly service.
The hill park section could be replaced by a route change to the 319 service which could go up and down in about 4/5 minutes.
The revised route would be interchange to westoe, then follow 8 route to the Nook then existing route to Jarrow which would reduce the route by at least 15 minutes and there should be no reduction in the 30 minute daytime service, bearing in mind GNE reduced the 26 to hourly, the10/11 is a link to the hospital.

Assuming franchising here, I'd just swap the 10/11/26 around.

Have it like:
R1: 26 from Jarrow to Hospital omitting Kirkstone Avenue, 10/11 from Hospital to South Shields (Every 30 Minutes)
R2: 10/11 from Jarrow to Hospital additionally doing Kirkstone Avenue, 26 from Hospital to South Shields (Every 30 Minutes)

It means everything from the West side has a faster service to South Shields and everything from the East side has a faster service to Jarrow because no-one realistically is going end to end unless they're bored with both major towns having a fast link to hospital.