Cuts to Q3 Walker and Wallsend bus service to be reversed

Q3 services to Walker and Wallsend were stopped in March

Cuts to a bus route on Tyneside are to be reversed after public opposition.

Go North East axed stops in Walker and Wallsend from its Q3 service earlier this year, removing a link to Newcastle city centre for people further east than St Peter's Basin.

The firm had said it was "not viable" due to low passenger numbers.

However, the full route is to be restored from next month after Nexus, the body which oversees transport in the region, stepped in with funding.

Half-hourly Q3 services will run all the way to Wallsend from 24 July.

More than 1,100 people had signed a petition urging Go North East not to cut the stops in March, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Walker councillor David Wood said: "This is one of the most deprived areas in the city that had a bus removed, while the Q3 was being diverted to Osborne Road in Jesmond, which is one of the more affluent areas.

"It is now there for the rest of the financial year and we will be working to get more funding for next year too."

Huw Lewis, customer services director at Nexus, said it had stepped in following a review of bus services across the region and as part of a plan to increase the number of people using public transport in the wake of coronavirus.

Go North East had said the Wallsend and Walker section of the route was "not particularly well used even before the pandemic, so it's simply not viable to continue it longer term especially when there is an alternative number 12 bus running in the same area".

Last month it announced another raft of proposed cuts across County Durham, Gateshead, Sunderland, South Tyneside and the Tyne Valley which it said was due to changes in demand.