(16 Mar 2022, 2:01 pm)Train8261 Arriva have kinda made a mistake on the X8/X9 changes on the website or they have word it really strange

Service X8
If you currently travel on Service X9 and board anywhere between Blyth Bus Station and Cramlington (except Amersham Road), your bus will show Service X8 instead and it will operate the exact same route between Blyth and Cramlington as the current Service X9 (omitting Amersham Road). From Cramlington, the service will operate via the existing Service X8 route to Newcastle.

Service X9
If you currently travel on Service X8 and board anywhere between Blyth Bus Station and Cramlington, your bus will show Service X9 instead and it will operate the exact same route between Blyth and Cramlington as the current Service X8. From Cramlington, the service will operate via the existing Service X9 route to Newcastle.

(16 Mar 2022, 3:07 pm)F114TML That's really badly worded.

I'm not familiar with these routes, but it reads to me like this:
- Between Blyth & Cramlington, X9 is being diverted along the current X8 route (although it implies the current X9 route is being retained by the new X8), with the X8 now omitting Amersham Road.
Presumably something like this:

(The fact I've had to redraw that diagram about 5 times is not good)

(16 Mar 2022, 2:01 pm)Train8261 Arriva have kinda made a mistake on the X8/X9 changes on the website or they have word it really strange

Service X8
If you currently travel on Service X8 and board anywhere between Blyth Bus Station and Cramlington, your bus will show Service X9 instead and it will operate the exact same route between Blyth and Cramlington as the current Service X8. From Cramlington, the service will operate via the existing Service X9 route to Newcastle.

Service X9
If you currently travel on Service X9 and board anywhere between Blyth Bus Station and Cramlington (except Amersham Road, please see separate note below), your 

If you currently travel on Service X9 and board anywhere between Blyth Bus Station and Cramlington, your bus will show Service X8 instead and it will operate the exact same route between Blyth and Cramlington as the current Service X8 (omitting Amersham Road). From Cramlington, the service will operate via the existing Service X8 route to Newcastle.

So basically there saying I'm it's correct

The X9 route between Blyth & Cramlington is the X8 route and the X8 route between Blyth & Cramlington is the X9 route

Yet it then says the X8 will follow the X9 route to Newcastle and the X9 will follow the X8 route to Newcastle

(16 Mar 2022, 5:57 pm)peter Sadly your diagram is wildly wrong. The X9 currently runs via South Beach and Amersham Road, the X8 runs via Bebside. After the changes, the X9 will run via Bebside and the X8 will run via South Beach. The X7 currently also runs via South Beach (but doesn't serve Cramlington) and that will now serve Amersham Road.

(16 Mar 2022, 6:26 pm)Storx I don't get the confusion tbh and there's been little confusion locally from what I've seen aswell. Most I've seen is people moaning from South Beach who can't get to the Regent Centre / Cramlington (Amersham Drive) now.

(16 Mar 2022, 6:31 pm)Dan I don't know the area particularly well, but it isn't written clearly.

It's obvious that Arriva have tried to re-assure their customers that it isn't a great change, effectively swapping the routes and little to no change other than Amersham Drive - but have failed to put this in a clear and coherent way. Ironically your description is a lot clearer.

(16 Mar 2022, 7:33 pm)Train8261 It's this part that confusing so much on the X8/X9 change

X9 From Cramlington, the service will operate via the existing Service X8 route to Newcastle.

X8 From Cramlington, the service will operate via the existing Service X9 route to Newcastle.

---

This is the entire thing on their website

What is changing?

We’re swapping the routes of Service X8 and X9 between Cramlington and Newcastle, plus a revision to which service operates via Amersham Road, to ensure reliability and punctuality of the revised services.

Why are we doing this?

We’re responding to lots of customer suggestions and queries regarding overall journey time from various areas of Blyth to Newcastle. Customers have identified that particularly those who live the furthest, have services that operate longer journey times between Cramlington and Newcastle.

These changes are designed to improve journey times, particularly for passengers who travel the furthest, but also balance the journey times by service, which has longer term punctuality and reliability improvements, as the services are all operationally linked (in that the same pool of vehicles operate on all three services across the day).

How does it affect me?

94% of existing passengers on Services X7, X8 and X9 will see either no change or a bus service number change only, as part of these revisions. Unfortunately, this does mean that 6% of existing passengers will see some change or potentially require a connecting service to complete their journey after 27 March.

Service X7
If you currently travel on Service X7, your journey is unaffected, all existing boarding points will continue to be observed as they do now.

Service X8
If you currently travel on Service X8 and board anywhere between Blyth Bus Station and Cramlington, your bus will show Service X9 instead and it will operate the exact same route between Blyth and Cramlington as the current Service X8. From Cramlington, the service will operate via the existing Service X9 route to Newcastle.

Service X9
If you currently travel on Service X9 and board anywhere between Blyth Bus Station and Cramlington (except Amersham Road, please see separate note below), your 

If you currently travel on Service X9 and board anywhere between Blyth Bus Station and Cramlington, your bus will show Service X8 instead and it will operate the exact same route between Blyth and Cramlington as the current Service X8 (omitting Amersham Road). From Cramlington, the service will operate via the existing Service X8 route to Newcastle.

Amersham Road to Cramlington
If you do currently use Service X9 on Amersham Road, your new service will be Service X7, which will be revised to operate via Amersham Road, replacing Service X9.

We do appreciate a small number of customers will regrettably lose a direct link to Cramlington because of this, however several alternative services will continue to operate via Plessy Road and Rotary Way, providing that direct link.

Links to Regent Centre and Quorum

Due to the changes in route, there will be some changes to which routes buses take into Newcastle compared to now. We’ve seen demand significantly reduce from these locations due to changes in working from home practices and flexible working arrangements, which also means demand into Newcastle now significantly outweighs any other demand – as a result, we’re prioritising these key passenger flows.

Connections between X7, X8 and X9 can still be made either in Cramlington (X8, X9) or Newcastle (All) to permit journeys as required. 

Making changes to how services operate that directly affects journeys people need to make are not taken lightly and, in this case, these revisions benefit significantly more people than current arrangements, which we believe ensures we’re providing the best possible service for as many people as possible

(16 Mar 2022, 6:31 pm)Dan I don't know the area particularly well, but it isn't written clearly.

It's obvious that Arriva have tried to re-assure their customers that it isn't a great change, effectively swapping the routes and little to no change other than Amersham Drive - but have failed to put this in a clear and coherent way. Ironically your description is a lot clearer.

(16 Mar 2022, 6:31 pm)I Dan I don't know the area particularly well, but it isn't written clearly.

It's obvious that Arriva have tried to re-assure their customers that it isn't a great change, effectively swapping the routes and little to no change other than Amersham Drive - but have failed to put this in a clear and coherent way. Ironically your description is a lot clearer.

(25 Mar 2022, 7:24 pm)Michael PB0002717/14 Registered (Short notice)
ARRIVA DURHAM COUNTY LTD
Route: Darlington to Colburn
Service number: X26 (X26, X27)
Service type: Limited Stop
Effective date: 24 Apr 2022

(25 Mar 2022, 8:29 pm)Andreos1 I imagine it is to do with the works between Scotch Corner and Richmond.
Although after today's escapade with the E400 earlier on, they may be re-routing it to avoid the shame of heading down that road again!