Arriva North East: Service Suggestions

mb134

4,149

08 Jul 2018, 6:51 pm #823

(08 Jul 2018, 9:58 am)S830OFT X1: Blyth - Bedlington - Ashington - Wansbeck Hospital - Cresswell - Widdrington - Amble - Alnmouth - Alnwick - A1 - Berwick.
This service will operate hourly between Blyth and Alnwick, however will operate Every 2 hours between Alnwick and Berwick. Services between Blyth and Wansbeck Hospital remain as service 1.

X2: Blyth - Bedlington - Morpeth - A1 - Pegswood - Acklington Prison - Amble - Alnmouth - Alnwick - Seahouses - Bambrough - A1 - Berwick. This service will operate hourly between Blyth and Alnwick, however will operate Every 2 hours between Alnwick and Berwick. Services between Blyth and Morpeth remain as service 2.

2: This service is revised to operate Every 30 minutes and extended to Kirkhill to replace service X16.

X3: New Direct service between Morpeth and Newcastle, it will operate up to Every 20 minutes. Service X4 and X5 will provide the fourth bus on their combined hourly frequency.

X14: Renumbered X4. This service will operate every two hours.

X15/X16/X18: Withdrawn, replaced by services X1/X2/2/X3/X5.

X5: Newcastle - A1 - Morpeth - A1 - Felton - Shilbottle - Alnwick - Seahouses - Bambrough - Berwick. This service will remain to keep the link with Newcastle from Alnwick and Berwick and the Coast. This service will operate direct to Alnwick to allow the link to the Coast to be quicker for customers. This service will operate every two hours.

X20: Ashington to Newcastle Peak time only, this service will operate similar to Blyth's X30, it will operate at peak time only. Passengers for Ashington should use the X21/X22 and connect with service X1 for journeys to Alnwick via Amble.

Service X1 will replace service X15 and X20 between Ashington and Berwick.
Service X2 and X5 will combine to provide a hourly service along the Coast between Alnwick and Berwick.

I honestly don't see the point in those changes? Delays on the X15/X18 currently can be handled to an extent because of the fast running on the route south of Morpeth, but if you're incorporating those journeys into local services, then passengers will quickly become annoyed (and bar excessive layover, there is nowhere to make up time)

The X5, in my opinion, wouldn't work. South of Alnwick it's exactly the same as what you have now, and the whole point of the current X18 is that it hugs the coast and serves several key tourist locations. Missing out the villages along the route, and then Craster and Beadnell, would lose you passengers (and it also wouldn't massively make the route quicker, maybe 10 minutes missed out?)

Cutting the X20 would also annoy more people than it would please. The section from Ashington to Newcastle has been a key part of the Ashington express network for 9 years, and I can't see any reason that you would withdraw it now. You also need to bear in mind that it serves parts of Ashington that the X21/22 don't.