(12 Jun 2018, 10:47 pm)S830OFT Sampled the 19:24 X24 from Sunderland to Newcastle, another Gas Bus (No Suprise) those omnilinks are never in service to be honest. At first it was just me and a lady who alighted just after The Broadway. Then a man boards and we hit the A19, another example of Low passenger usage on this service. As such there is now the 15:22 and 19:24 from Sunderland which pretty much carry fresh air, this is pretty worrying for the continuation of this service as it only ever gets high passenger numbers on a Saturday by the looks of it.
Has anyone else been observing the X24 as most passengers on Chester Road only use it for several stops or to the town, it seems to just come as extra transport alongside the 8 and 16.
I can not see this service surviving Monday to Friday on it's current timetable as the times are ridiculous and the loading of the service are ridiculous.
I use it at various different times, and I personally think it probably does enough on Monday to Friday to survive.
Any time after lunch going out of Newcastle there's a fair few seem to get on it. When I've been on the 2.35pm or 3.45pm for example, it's been quite full, so I think it does get passengers outside of the morning/evening peak. Same with mid-morning journeys from Sunderland to Newcastle.
It does seem that going towards Newcastle in the afternoon it does not seem to get very many passengers apart from ones who just use it as a local service in Sunderland. However, introducing the X24A has probably helped as that gets workers boarding which otherwise wouldn't have if it just went via the regular X24 route. I'd say an average of 7-8 people board at Doxford.
