(7 hours ago)BoroLad wrote I really like the river drive extension in theory - but weren't there bridge issues which caused them to divert the 10/11 route in Shields? At the moment though, coastal South Shields is split between various routes - the E1 clearly gets a lot of its traffic from people visiting the coast but can be a victim of its own success during nice weather and also runs via Horsley Hill rather than the coast road - having one designated route serving the entire coastline would be very appealing.
If the issue there can be resolved though you'd be in an excellent position because you'd get a direct link between the ferry and . To complement that, I'd be tempted to extend the 300 to North Shields Fish Quay and Ferry (though physical space at the ferry landing bus terminal may be an issue). That way there would be the potential to market the two together and promote the idea that you could take both to see both the North Tyneside coast and down into South Tyneside/Wearside, all for just £7.50 including travel to the coast, the full journey down from Whitley Bay to Seaham, and the ferry in between.
Obviously that extension would mean an additional vehicle needed for the 300, and ideally you'd want anything interacting with the ferry to go half hourly. I'd also be quite keen to see the route run a bit further north, if the demand is there... Seaton Sluice and South Beach in Blyth both get a fair few visitors on a nice day, and I think North Shields to Blyth would be doable in an hour. My gut feeling is the 300 is just a trial run to see how well received a summer seafront service is (after all there have been others in the past which didn't last long) and so if it returns then I imagine they'd tweak it in various ways.
Honestly not sure about the bridge issue, is that the bridge that looks like a concrete Tyne Bridge?, i know when i was last over there the 10 and E1 were still serving that way, but that was June 2025, so could very well happened after that, that was my thinking also, the E1 and E2 (especially when it had the open toppers on) was very busy during the summer, and i thought surely South Tyneside and Sunderland could benefit from something like the 300, there could even be a tide saver which would include travel on the 300, 514, and Ferry