(27 Mar 2014, 6:32 pm)DavidP wrote A Hylton Castle to Farringdon and back to Hylton Castle round trip on Service 3 would take about 75 minutes in the evening, so with a 30 minute frequency, it would take 3 buses with a 15 minute layover. A Pennywell to City Centre and back to Pennywell round trip on Service 20 would take about 40 minutes, so with a 30 minute frequency, it would take 2 buses with a 20 minute layover somewhere.

Doing a Farringdon to City Centre journey on the 3 then a round trip on the 20 to Pennywell and back then City Centre to Hylton Castle on the 3 then back to Farringdon takes just on 2 hours so on a 30 minute frequency it uses just 4 buses in total.

Yes, this seems more the convenience of the company but it saves a bus then it keeps fares down and/or keeps the evening service commercially viable, so Customers do win as well. And anyone wanting to travel from the Durham Road area to Southwick still does have the 4 and 13 available, so I can't see that many people would be inconvenienced by this.

And there is a fair bit of history of this happening in Sunderland. In Corporation Transport days, the 1 (Grangetown and Dene Estate), 7 (Town Centre and Docks), 15 (Town Centre and 25 (Town Centre and Witherwack) had a really complex interworking.

Regards
David P