Threatened bus routes are saved

Threatened bus routes in Tyneside and County Durham are to be saved after a campaign by more than 1,000 people.

Bus company Go North East said it made a commercial decision to revise services in the west of Gateshead and parts of Derwentside.

But residents, many of them elderly, expressed concern at the proposals.

Now Nexus, which co-ordinated bus a Metro services in Tyne and Wear, has stepped in to provide replacement services in affected areas.

Residents in High Spen, Ryton, Blackhall Mill and Barlow Village in Gateshead who were facing the loss of bus links between their villages, raised a 1,000-name petition.

Bernard Garner, development director for Nexus said: "We have arranged to maintain a number of essential links in the short term while we undertake a comprehensive survey into the adequacy of public transport in the area.

Public transport

"This survey will involve local consultation and be completed by mid-September, and we expect to have the results at the end of October.

"The outcome of the survey will identify the steps that we and bus operators need to take to provide adequate public transport provision.

"In the interim, Nexus has arranged to support service 643 in the evening and on Sundays to maintain services for the residents of the Sunnyside estate.

"We have also agreed to maintain service 610 through to Blackhall Mill."

A "bus-on-demand" service will also be trialled in Barlow Village.

Go North East commercial director Martin Harris said changes were necessary because of "economic pressures" on bus services in the area.

He added: "Some people will find that less convenient but the services they are changing to will be very frequent."