(25 Nov 2014, 11:14 am)Dan wrote ...As I have already suggested - the proposed changes are far from confirmed at this stage. Indeed, I understand there is an upcoming meeting with senior management and local councillors as well as Nexus to discuss the proposed changes, and how they would affect (positively or negatively) residents in Sunderland. Local councillors have prevented proposed service changes going ahead in the past - a (fairly) recent example would of course be the X3 service. Without wishing to spark a debate about this particular service, Go North East attempted to withdraw service X3 and replace it with service X36 quite some time ago, though local councillors insisted that it was vital to keep this service as it was well used by the residents of Boldon. Of course, the service has now been withdrawn, but this followed on from a low frequency service which was designed to work around scholars and keep costs down...Usually, a public consulatation is one of the last stages of bringing in any changes to a service. By now, the buisiness case will have been prepared, all fleet allocations will be sorted, and all documenation prepared for the changes. The consulation being a chance to collect feedback on the changes.
When Northumberland County Council axed the post 16 transport provision, their consulatation documents hinted strongly of there intention. Many of the question's where geared towards their evential desicion. Basically what I am saying is that any public consulation has one aim, to get feedback on the plans on the table, but not discuss any alternative options.
Given the quality of customer service that Go North East offer, I believe that they will take into consideration customers views, but by now they will be fairly certain on what option they will take.