As I put in the GNE thread I had an awful time trying to get from Shiremoor to West Boldon which would take 15-20 mins in car. The 9 is great for people who live on the route or nearby Jarrow Bus Station (and is well used with between 5-15 people on it regularly).
I will be increasing cross tyne connections while chnaging a few South Tyneside routes to accommodate things...
Some suggestions I have are;
10/11 (Yellow Line) | Cobalt & Silverlink - South Shields, Every 30 mins
26 (Green Line) | Lukes Lane - South Shields, every 30 mins
*Swap the routing around at Primrose & Simonside and onwards to Jarrow (for 10/11 & 26) - improving links and journeys times would still be similar. This also makes the stupidity of being able to miss the 26 in Lukes Lane walk 5-10 mins and catch the one before you missed due to the awful routing/timetabling. This will increase passenger numbers on the 10/11 improving sustainability.
*The 26 route in Hebburn would miss out Finchdale road as it is useless having the 26 & 27 to Jarrow & Shields being on opposite sides of the roads. This would also increase the sustainability of the 27 and can improve evening/Sunday timetables.
*Extend the 10/11 back up to Cobalt as this was popular pre-covid and was withdrawn during Covid.
99 (blue) | Wallsend - Sunderland (599)
99A (blue) | Castletown - Grangetown (99)
*Renumber the 599 to the 99 as it is easier to remember and the 99 to the 99A. I would make sure the links from Castletown to Chester Road are timetabled to coincide a 30 min frequency as there are a fair few people who do this journey often and this will only increase with the cross city links being lost on the *new 35&36. Currently until 2pm there are 4 buses per hour from Ferryboat Lane to Buzz Bingo - Pallion. And it is mad that the 599 & 99 currently are not timetabled together (and are ran by 2 different companies). I would bring back some of the original 99/135&136 around the northern estates and send it up to South bents for improved connections without having to cross the dangerous road at the Wheatsheaf.
*I would change the 599 significantly...and have it turn left after Nissan and go to Amazon then up past Whitemare pool to Monkton Business park and into Hebburn that way. The route on the map has incorporated as much of the Hebburn loop as possible so not many people would miss out enabling a cross-tyne extension to Wallsend (this used to be 1bph when it was the 9A a long time ago). It significantly increases links easy for cars to do.
12 (pink) | South Shields | Tyne Dock | ST Hospital | The Lonnen | Cleadon | Boldon | Fellgate | Simonside | Tyne Dock | South Shields
13 (pink) | South Shields | Tyne Dock | Simonside | Fellgate | Boldon | Cleadon | The Lonnen || ST Hospital | Tyne Dock | South Shields
*Both every 30 mins and creates new connections
*As you can see this would be after the 26th Jan changes by GNE so the 35 would still exist (I just couldn't be bothered to draw it as we all know the route). I would up the 26 to half hourly and withdraw the 5. You can merge the 12/X20/30 together to create new links and keep the Fellgate/Boldon to ST Hospital possible.
All frequencies would every 30 mins besides the 99/99A being hourly but joint from Castletown to Royal Hospital. Additionally I would up the 50 to every 20 mins to help over crowding...