(5 hours ago)Economic505 wrote For a while, npower helped pay for services 921, 922 and 923. Obviously npower is long gone , having been merged into EON UK, after EON Germany and RWE did an asset swap. Just Eat took over the building but I believe they are moving out too.

That's the ones. Knew it was a 9xx, but couldn't remember them for the life of me. 

Aye, saw something a few weeks back about the move. 
They've only been there 5 years or so.

(10 hours ago)Andreos1 wrote I personally thought the Chester Road corridor was over-served by routes basically following each other and very little in the way of actual destinations. 

If you live anywhere other than Sunderland City Centre or Shiney Row, there's nothing to attract you to make that modal switch to/from the hospital.

Why bother getting 2 buses and the inevitable hike from one part of Park Lane to another (or worse, another part of the city centre), when you can use the car, get a taxi or utilise patient transport?

Or, in the case of the Pennywell offering - those living there, have a better choice of routes/destinations with SNE. 

I'd have thought all the forecasting they did in preparation, would have identified those issues myself mind.

Chester Road Is the Gosforth High Street argument. It looks over subscribed with buses, but it isn't as those buses are using the quickest route in to Sunderland from various places which cannot be connected themselves in a reasonable manner.

Everyone wants a direct link to the hospital *just incase*. Most people don't go to hospital on a regular basis to justify direct links from everywhere. The most important bus journeys to/from Hospitals are for workers - not patients or visitors. Operators should concentrate on that, for example, I don't see why they can't divert the 32 via the Hospital at shift change times

(5 hours ago)DodgepotMcDougal wrote Chester Road Is the Gosforth High Street argument. It looks over subscribed with buses, but it isn't as those buses are using the quickest route in to Sunderland from various places which cannot be connected themselves in a reasonable manner.

Everyone wants a direct link to the hospital *just incase*. Most people don't go to hospital on a regular basis to justify direct links from everywhere. The most important bus journeys to/from Hospitals are for workers - not patients or visitors. Operators should concentrate on that, for example, I don't see why they can't divert the 32 via the Hospital at shift change times

The 32 goes via the hospital doesn't it? Unless it's changed very recently.

Personally I don't get why they don't send the 33 via the hospital and formally merge it with the 63. They're interworking anyway so there's no issues from that front and the hospital issue is resolved. Stagecoach have pulled out of Silksworth so the extra time doesn't matter nowadays. 

Might aswell swap the routes back around in the Grangetown area aswell like it was for years with the 2/2A/39/61 so people on Murton aren't going on a tour around the world to Sunderland and restores the Ryhope to Doxford Park links. 

Fixes the common complaints on here really. 

For the other half of the 62 who knows, does it even need to exist with the Stagecoach 20?

(10 hours ago)Andreos1 wrote And that whacky pizza brand. 

But they apparently stopped it as there wasn't enough through traffic to sustain it. 
Hence the diversion via Rainton Bridge in an effort to boost numbers.

It didn't really work when it was under the 'Pronto' brand at least, not much through traffic from the Bishop end and the consequence of its existence was only one direct Bishop to Newcastle bus an hour with the X21, was certainly a much better use of resources to restore the Bishop to Newcastle link to half hourly on the X21.