(16 Apr 2014, 5:27 pm)Dan Guilty of doing this all the time.

(16 Apr 2014, 5:03 pm)AIG20 My suggestion would be creating a new Economic route (ran by E200s / Darts), such as an "E3", that will serve the "Lawe Top" - next to the Roman Fort, the Coast Road, the whole of Lizard Lane, the South Bents Estate, Roker Park Road, Park Parade, Roker Avenue and the City Centre.

There could also be an "E3a" that will continue the route to serve the 18/19 route past the city centre via the Eye infirmary to Grindon.

This will allow the E1 to serve the east side of Church Street North and Dame Dorothy Street, and the E6 to serve Mill Lane. This is because Roker Avenue and Lizard Lane (in Whitburn) is becoming too narrow for "full sized" single decker's.

Frequency could include the E3 running every 15 minutes, and the E3a running every 30 minutes.

(16 Apr 2014, 7:58 pm)AdamY To give these Sunderland to South Shields service suggestions an old-school twist, why not extend the 30 beyond Boldon Asda via the old 537 route via Hylton Castle, A19, Chester Road and Royal Hospital thus recreating the service.

Or route it into Sunderland via the current X36 route to give GNE a further excuse to re-jig services in Northern Sunderland.

(17 Jun 2014, 7:39 pm)Marcus I was discussing this with Tom about a week ago via PM, and he suggested a Service X33 between Newcastle and Sunderland which would interwork with the X34. I'm surprised Stagecoach haven't already cashed in on the idea of a direct express between Newcastle and Sunderland - seeing as they have major networks in both areas.

Here's what he came up with

''
Service X33 – Sunderland-Newcastle express
Newcastle Pilgrim Street….. 55 25
Gateshead Metro…………….. 04 34
East Boldon Blacks Corner. 25 55
Fulwell The Grange…………. 31 01
Monkwearmouth……………. 36 06
Sunderland Fawcett St…… 44 14

Sunderland Fawcett St…. 50 20
Monkwearmouth………… 54 24
Fulwell The Grange…….. 59 29
Fulwell Herbet Terrace.. 01 31
East Boldon Blacks Corner 05 35
Gateshead High Street…… 25 55
Newcastle, Pilgrim Street. 32 02

It would interwork with the X34 at Newcastle.
''

Not sure if he already posted about it or not - but all credit goes to him

(17 Jun 2014, 10:21 pm)Acky81 But the idea of x33 is just the gne route x3

(19 Jun 2014, 3:21 pm)ifm001 There used to be an X97 service operated many moons ago by Redby Travel which could easily be re introduced by stagecoach as X33 and operate in addition to X34. This operated Seaburn - Whitburn - Cleadon - Boldon Asda - Gateshead - Newcastle. As this does not directly follow the metro system perhaps it wouldn't fail as miserably as the X3 has done.

(19 Jun 2014, 3:21 pm)ifm001 There used to be an X97 service operated many moons ago by Redby Travel which could easily be re introduced by stagecoach as X33 and operate in addition to X34. This operated Seaburn - Whitburn - Cleadon - Boldon Asda - Gateshead - Newcastle. As this does not directly follow the metro system perhaps it wouldn't fail as miserably as the X3 has done.

(20 Jun 2014, 11:45 am)Acky81 Don't recall x97 going through seaburn it did start I'm sure in Silksworth then via the boldons to Newcastle. It soon went as go wear buses introduced a x91 service on the same route 5 minutes earlier. I'm nearly 99% x97 never went to seaburn or Whitburn. A redby x2 and 558 ran along seaburn

(20 Jun 2014, 10:10 pm)cbma06 Never heard of a redby X67 bus service, what year was it when redby ran this X67?.

(20 Jun 2014, 1:27 pm)cbma06 yes, their used to be a X97 operated by Redby travel, When it first started it used to go between Sunderland and Newcastle via the old Northern route X96, after a short period the X97 was extended to commence from Silksworth to lure passengers of Northern 133 between Silksworth and Sunderland, then Northern put on the X91 5 minutes in front of Redby X97, this was many moons ago, When the 538 was withdrawn Sunderland to Heworth, Northern put on a X98 Southwick to Newcastle going along most of the 538 route: http://northeastbuses.net78.net/archive/GNE/X98SouthwickHeworthNewcastleMarch2002.jpg
Then Northern put on the X97 Seaburn to Newcastle daytime replacing the daytime 558 and X98 http://northeastbuses.net78.net/archive/GNE/X97558SeaburnHeworthNewcastle2001a.jpg

I was told by Stagecoach about a year ago that their have no intentions to run a service between Sunderland and Newcastle due to the higher frequent of service from the metro and train services. Also told me that their had no intention to run a service between Sunderland and Hartlepool to join up the areas and for passengers with megariders etc... to travel between Newcastle/Sunderland/Hartlepool/Stockton/Middlesbrough.

(21 Jun 2014, 7:02 am)cbma06 The links don't open because the bygone era section needs to be updated, something to do with the old server or something, I'm not really technical person

(20 Jun 2014, 9:11 pm)ifm001 The very first redby service. X67 was the one that started from seaburn. The silksworth came much later. The seaburn one used them funny double deckers that they had. Only thinkg I can remember was the registration used the letters BO. JBO if I remember correctly

(21 Jun 2014, 7:57 am)Dan Still on the "To do" list..!

(21 Jun 2014, 8:29 pm)ifm001 Apologies. Finger slip. Was still referring to the x97 not 67