Anger over changes to Jarrow bus route

As of tomorrow the Go North East services 88/88A will no longer be travelling down Inverness Road on the Scotch Estate, Jarrow, instead they will continue straight down Perth Avenue.

Now residents will either have to walk down to Perth Avenue, to catch up with the busses, or take a combination of different services to get to their destinations.

Coun Lee Hughes, who also runs the Red Hackle pub on the estate, is furious with the changes.

He said: “Inverness Road is a very long street and it’s going to mean quite a walk for some residents to get down to Perth Avenue.

“It’s either that or they will have to catch a number of buses to be where they want to be.

“Neither of these options is ideal.”

It’s understood the services have been changed to avoid Inverness Road in a bid to improve reliability.

But Coun Hughes is disappointed that officials from Go North East haven’t been on a site visit with him.

He said: “Myself and the other ward councils wanted a site visit, but that never happened.

“We’ve been told that only 20 people were using the bus, so therefore it wasn’t viable.

“But we don’t know when this survey took place.”

Already two residents have suffered due to the changes.

Coun Hughes said: “One elderly gent missed his hospital appointment on Thursday because of the no service sign on the bus stop next to the junction of Gretna Drive

“Then he realised it was still running as the bus drove past him.

“While another woman who works in Harton Lane, will now have to catch two busses instead of just one.”

Nexus has said that it will continue to provide a subsidy to Go North East so the 88/88A service can run in the evening.

It has also revealed that changes have already been made to affected bus stops,

A Nexus spokesman said: “This stop will have no services calling at it as of Sunday morning due to the cancellation of the 88/88a affecting those stops.

“Our timetables are posted on-street as close as possible to the date of the registration change.

He added: “Go North East operates the 88/88A commercially and they have given formal notification that they are planning to change the route so that the bus will no longer operate along Inverness Road in Jarrow.

“Anyone residing on Inverness Road who has a mobility problem which means that they cannot walk to the nearest bus stop on the route can register to join our TaxiCard scheme. Information about this can be on the Nexus website, nexus.org.uk.”

Go North East was unavailable for comment when contacted by the Gazette.