(30 Sep 2014, 4:55 pm)Dan wrote Not all changes have to save resources? Bus operators do, albeit less regularly, add more resources into services. In this case, you're adding the resources from the 8 into a revised 20 by merging the two and providing a 10 min freq as per the latter, on the former.
It would achieve a 10 minute frequency from South Hylton to the City Centre, opposed to the current 30 minute frequency. Whilst that perhaps in part suggests there isn't a great demand for a 30 minute frequency, it could create more of a demand, taking passengers away from the Metro service.
It would only add about four minutes on to the current 20 timetable (assuming it calls into Prestbury Rd first opposed to South Hylton - it certainly doesn't take 10 mins to get round Hadleigh Rd), and the re-routing via Prestbury Rd for service 8 would only add a few minutes too.
The reference to 10 mins was quoting the figure you gave for diverting via South Hylton, not the Hylton Lane Estate diversion. 10 mins is an underestimate though - currently from St Annes to Claxheugh Road on the 8 is 8 mins in each direction, so diverting the 20 along the existing route would add 16 mins to the length of the current 20 journey. Plus the extra 3 mins to go via Hylton Lane Est = about 20 mins extra onto the journey time from Prestbury Rd to City Centre on the proposed new 20.
As for the 8 attracting passengers from the Metro, the service used to exist as the 8/9/9A which combined provided a South Hylton – City Centre service every 15 mins. This was scaled back to just the 8 every 30 mins in 2003 as the Metro took passengers from the service (being a quicker option). So seems unlikely that by increasing the journey time by going via Prestbury Road, potential service 8 passengers would be tempted back off the Metro.