First experience in Nexus-land this weekend, so looking at this from a completely new perspective rather than being able to compare it with what may have gone before.
If I had to describe the Nexus offering in one word, it would be "underwhelming". Whilst the bus stop displays are functional, they do nothing to encourage you to use the bus. They are all in corporate red and black, with routes listed purely in numerical order, giving no precedence to frequency of operation or likelihood of use. As such, you have the bright colours of Go North East's X-lines services reduced down to what could best be described as "dull and boring". Routes are also listed individually, so to take the X84 and X85 to Hexham as an example, the two services are listed separately, requiring you to look in two places, albeit underneath each other, rather than having a composite timetable with both departures. Yes, they do serve different routes, but the ultimate destination is the same. It's a rather different situation to the 74, for example, which also serves Hexham but via a much longer route with nothing in common except the start and end points, and runs from the opposite end of Eldon Square.
The whole feel of the bus stations was run down and uncared for, regardless of size. Park Lane interchange at Sunderland was probably the best of the bunch, in that the toilets and retail facilities (the ever-present Greggs) were both open, and had a visible bus station inspector. The facility looked clean, recently updated, and had fairly regularly repeated information. Obviously the travel shop has closed (more anon), but even the closure notices managed to look cared for, rather than slapped up as an afterthought as they did elsewhere.
The others ranged from grim to dismal. Haymarket was the first one I came to, and after leaving the Metro station you have to work your way through the clouds of smoke from disinterested looking Arriva drivers, who use that end of the bus station as their smoking zone [that's not an implicit criticism of the drivers, they are entitled to their breaks, but it doesn't say "welcome to bus travel"]. The Arriva travel shop is closed, and when the lights are on you can see it has already been repurposed for various bits of driver information. The sticky-letters on backlit signs gave it a feel of last being refurbished in the 90s, and it generally had a feel of "has this seen a coat of paint since construction". It was open and airy, but just a bit dowdy. Eldon Square was similar - the where to board your bus posters are only at either end, which is unhelpful if you come through the shopping centre, whilst the toilets, by contrast, are in the shopping centre, which is unhelpful if you have a connection to make. Similar to Haymarket, the feel just seems a little down-at-heel. The inspector's office remained steadfastly empty whenever I went past, except for the empty leaflet racks presumably removed from the (closed) travelshop.
Gateshead and Four Lane Ends offered much of a muchness. Toilets: closed. Retail: closed. Travelshop: closed. Next stop departure screens: not working properly. cleanliness: poor. Ambience: grim. Four Lane Ends was cavernous, and you could see the handful of passengers milling around for the handful of buses like lost souls, perhaps more in hope than expectation. If there was any sort of where to board your bus poster, I didn't see it. Gateshead was better in terms of passenger numbers and buses, but again, the whole thing had an air of disinterest about it. A good deep clean, some paint where necessary, and improved signage would go a long way to helping - as might a walkway to stand N from it's opposite number, rather than expecting you to only cross at the bus station exit.
The issue is presumably funding - when isn't it - but do wonder if they'd spent even half the sum they spent on consultants for the franchising (?) proposals a few years ago had been spent on bus station care whether the ambience might be very different. Given the closure of the Nexus travelshops, it will be interesting to see what Go North East come up with to ensure customers, both existing and potential, can pick up their excellent (and apparently in much-demand) printed publicity: the rack at the Metrocentre is excellent, with buses on one side and County Durham tourist materials on the other.
