(01 Sep 2026, 11:13 pm)Adrian wrote Postcode lottery, isn't it? You're just as likely to live a close walk to one of these stations as you are to one of those bus services, otherwise you're on the mini buses first.

You keep suggesting that buses are the solution, but if they had been, the idea or the Metro extension wouldn't have even made it this far. Fact remains that its 40+ minutes to Sunderland and Newcastle is just shy of that, which is unacceptable. I used to do 60-90 minutes each way 5 days a week and it is absolutely mind-numbing.

You're also never going to speed buses up to the point that it will be anywhere near the 12 minutes the Metro is likely to take, not without building new roads. Buses still have to serve the immediate stops.

Aye don't disagree but there's very little density on the stations to support 6 TPH. 

Just don't know where these people are coming from since there's now no parking facilities and let's be honest very few people are interchanging towards Sunderland, at least. 

We'll have to see, I'm happy to be proven wrong. 

(02 Sep 2026, 2:31 am)deanmachine wrote I like how there's always people saying new railway lines are pointless and nobody will use them. Bit like the Northumberland Line, which then immediately carry more people then they planned for. It's almost as if people like using the train.

Anyways, great to see the proposals in full now, will be fascinating to see all the work taking place, especially in South Hylton, seems like quite a task.

Not sure the Northumberland Line is really comparable considering it serves 3 major towns, is only 2 TPH and cost 1/6 of the price (pre actual building). 

The Northumberland Line trains would be pretty dead aswell really if they were 3x the frequency and they have a hell of lot more density than these proposed stations and actually serve a town centre on the route (Ashington). Especially if you removed the parking which a lot of people use (these stations also don't have).