(07 Feb 2015, 8:07 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote I think regardless of a different way forward, many commuters will ALWAYS favour the Metro over a bus because of how much quicker it.
Granted when I used it between Sunderland and Newcastle, the train wasn't exactly great and the whole thing was packed after we hit Heworth - but it cut off another 30 minutes of a journey I would have otherwise endured on the 56. (I use that as an example, as it runs at the same frequency as the Metro).
I'm sure Dan mentioned when telling us about his private education - that when they all hit Sixth Form, all his friends and other people in his year group wanted to use the Metro or something over the bus...this reason possibly being because the train will always been seen as a nicer form of travel than bus.
I've seen on the Metro's Twitter page previously about complaints in regards to the works and stuff - and outrage regarding replacement buses. The people who use the Metro as their daily commute absolutely hate buses, so it seems.
Perhaps a regular Metro user can expand on this?
Yeah - there was quite a few people in my school that hadn't actually used a bus prior to this year, though they had used the Metro.
The main reason why the Metro is favoured is due to the shorter journey time it can provide. Clearly, when issues arise, even the 56 between Sunderland and Newcastle ends up being twice as quick as the Metro! Even direct replacement buses don't provide a particularly fast journey time - I seem to remember the X3 service actually providing a quicker journey time than Metro Replacement 900 between Sunderland and Gateshead. Emergency replacement buses are absolutely dreadful to use and this is another reason why commuters are likely to dislike them. The 27 had to drive straight past customers at Heworth yesterday, never mind those on Sunderland Rd. Metros provide such a high capacity for the peaks (when commuters travel) - buses don't.