(24 Dec 2017, 10:14 am)Dan The 14:30 trip southbound carried 5 people in total, myself included. It picked up nobody at Dalton Park (the Go North East X6 which followed immediately after the X55 picked up all intending passengers to Hartlepool).
I was the first to alight at ASDA in Hartlepool, so I'm unsure where the others got off (whether it was Victoria Road in Hartlepool, or they travelled onwards towards Greatham).
It's always a pity when services are withdrawn when they don't work out, but I still can't help but feel that this one was always destined to fail. It had a lot of potential, but a seemingly poor execution? A Saturday-only service, with just a few trips in either direction at odd times... A streamlined timetable with cheaper fares and faster journey times than the X10 between Stockton, Dalton Park and Newcastle, would have definitely been interesting...
Obviously stood no chance against the Go North East X10 when this was finally re-routed to serve Dalton Park - something which had been on the cards for a very long time - offering a streamlined timetable which was easy to understand.
Does anyone know what's going to happen with the coach now? Back to UK disposals?
So does the X47 now have 15 minutes layover in Eldon Square, on paper? Adding 1 PVR?
The X47 has always interested me in that whatever Stagecoach try and do to improve the reliability of the service, it never seems to work. You don't tend to see them bunching up and running in threes now, but there still is some obvious issues with the timekeeping. The traffic in Kingston Park is just so unpredictable, paired with the Metro level crossing (also running at unpredictable times!) causing chaos.
The allocations to the X47 still seem a bit manic too. Not sure if this will be resolved if they're getting an extra bus on paper? But over the last few weeks, it seems like pretty much anything has been thrown on... ADL E400s, E400MMCs, E200MMCs, rather than the ALX300s which should be on.
How do the X77/78/79/82 work now? Without interworking with the X47, are these services going to have an increased amount of layover now too, and will that result in a PVR increase? A guess looking at the timetable would suggest an inbound X78 during the day would have 20 minutes layover, then running an outbound X82 (that, or no layover at all on the X78 and 3 minutes layover on the X82). This would make this group of services quite inefficient too, though commendable if it does solve the reliability issues!
I don't think anyone thought the X55 would survive, even before the Dalton Park go thrown in by Go North East.
The previous round of changes saw the X47/X78/X82 begin to interwork which was why the allocations were a bit all over the place, as the Darras and Throckley express allocations have always appear to be thrown together last minute... So with the X47 removed from the chaos it is indeed a 15 mins layover at Eldon Sqaure - which should make layover bays great fun. So the new X78 and X82 diagram will see the long layover after coming back from Darras Hall (X78) before going onto the X82. Going the other way as you point out, back to a smooth transition of how it used to - suspect the extra bus is directly into the X47. X47 and X88 will though be interworking on Boxing Day.
The Slatyford boards are a bit of a minefield, the likes of 30/31/36 for example, which you would think would be simple inter-working are vastly different depending on the board - you basically think how do you follow that when you need to look at it quickly!
Another one I've just thought of for newsworthiness, sections of the 35 between Red House Farm and Gosforth High Street are now secured during the week.
