(16 Dec 2014, 2:59 pm)Michael wrote Maybe the changes for the 4 at end of January is for reliability issues, hopefully. 

I would think so, just been looking at the Timetable and it takes 52 Minutes to do the Full Route from Houghton to Heworth, and receives a total of 5 Minutes Layover, Heworth 2 Minutes and Houghton 3 Minutes, not really much time to allow the Service to make up time if its running late is it.

As a former student at the Usworth Campus I used to use the Service almost daily depending on the Weather, otherwise id ride my Bike there and back, I often found if I did get the Bus from The Galleries at 08:34 to Usworth that it was often Several Minutes Late or simply no showed, same with the 08:44, it was a rarity for me to even get to College on time, Making the return journey home was fine as I often found the Bus would simply turn up as approached the Stop.

I think issue stems along the Route at Peak Times, as you have those who are going to Work and then those going to School/College, The 4 passes Several Schools along the Route, Biddick and St Roberts being the most notable, I would further think between 08:00 and 09:00 the Traffic would be horrendous between those Schools with them being quite close to each other, along with other Schools along the Route, I also think the issue comes from the Houghton end also rather than Heworth, as at the Heworth end there is a Bus Lane from Lingey Lane all the way down the Roundabout for Heworth Metro, so surely there should zero issues at that end unless there has been a Crash.

As for the Changes to the Service I can GNE Reducing the Frequency to Every 12 Minutes as they have done with the 27 and 56 iirc, other than that I dont think it will be anything majot at all.