(03 Jan 2015, 7:10 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote [ -> ]An express version of Service 7.
Currently takes 1 hour and 9 minutes between Durham and Darlington, here's a rough plan for an express service I've devised...
Darlington Tubwell Row - 52 minutes past
Aycliffe Village North Briton - 07 minutes past
Newton Aycliffe Churchill House - 13 minutes past
Ferryhill Bus Station - 26 minutes past
Neville's Cross Church - 35 minutes past
Durham Bus Station - 37 minutes past
Durham Bus Station - 00 minutes past
Neville's Cross Church - 02 minutes past
Ferryhill Bus Station - 11 minutes past
Newton Aycliffe Churchill House - 24 minutes past
Aycliffe Village North Briton - 30 minutes past
Darlington Tubwell Row - 45 minutes past
What does anyone think?
Driver would get 23 minutes layover in Durham and 7 minutes in Darlington - probably a bit unfair on the Darlington side of things (as I believe this where driver changeovers occur?) so things could probably be evened out to 15 minutes layour on both sides.
Or, things could infer work so an X7 coming into Darlo could go back out as a 7, so they would interwork.
Some of them times are a bit tight and the route is pretty much the old 723 route except missing Chilton out. Old 723 timetable from the bygone Era:
http://northeastbuses.co.uk/archive/GoNo...ch2003.pdf
I'm not sure how much demand there is for a Durham to Darlington as it has to compete with the train and many of the 7's passengers are local eg. Aycliffe - Darlington and Ferryhill - Durham.
Also would this suggestion be limited stop or all stops.
I honestly think that the best thing to do would be to introduce a non-stop express service Durham to Darlington via the A1, with cheaper fares than that of the competing train.
I think it's quite likely that anyone doing that journey by train at the moment will have to travel into Durham City Centre by bus, so there's a fair chance that they'll be coming in by Arriva anyway. With the current journey time of the 7 from A - B being over an hour, it should come as no surprise that a large amount of people will opt for the train if they want to do this journey. If there was an Arriva service offering the journey in approximately 30 minutes, this is only 15 minutes longer than the train, and the potential savings to customers could outweigh the advantage of saving this time by using the train.
I can't help but see that this is a missed opportunity, when we have such an over-saturated offering on the Peterlee - Sunderland corridor...
Service 36a Morpeth-Morpeth Stn-County Hall-Clifton-Stannington
Morpeth Bus Stn 10 O. 57 R
Morpeth Rail Stn 15. u. 52 e
Clifton Garage... 22 t 45 t
S'ton Stn Rd End 29. 41
Stan'ton Church. 34. 36
(03 Jan 2015, 7:29 pm)Dan wrote [ -> ]I honestly think that the best thing to do would be to introduce a non-stop express service Durham to Darlington via the A1, with cheaper fares than that of the competing train.
I think it's quite likely that anyone doing that journey by train at the moment will have to travel into Durham City Centre by bus, so there's a fair chance that they'll be coming in by Arriva anyway. With the current journey time of the 7 from A - B being over an hour, it should come as no surprise that a large amount of people will opt for the train if they want to do this journey. If there was an Arriva service offering the journey in approximately 30 minutes, this is only 15 minutes longer than the train, and the potential savings to customers could outweigh the advantage of saving this time by using the train.
I can't help but see that this is a missed opportunity, when we have such an over-saturated offering on the Peterlee - Sunderland corridor...
The problem at Arriva is that if they start an express service it is not long before they add extra stops and defeat the appeal of an express examples are the old X14 that Bishop Auckland Depot ran and the current Darlo X1
A non-stop express down the A1, will have issues, unless it picks up a decent load at either end.
An express between Darlington and Durham, will need to call at sufficient stops to add to any profit garnered at the start points but also be quicker than any other service between the same points.
These stops need to be in places where there isn't a direct alternative.
The X9/10 work, because there are stops between Newcastle and Middlesbrough, where they are 'unique' i.e no train or competing service.
Ditto the X15.
A Durham - Darlington service could replicate the X1 to a degree, calling at the Uni, Shincliffe, Bowburn etc before heading onto the A1.
Into Darlington, the A68 route could work off the A1.
Coast and Castles X18 should be renumbered back to 518. Also it shouldn't be branded as Max or Sapphire, it should be branded as Coast and Castles and feature e-leather seats, free wifi, power sockets and next stop announcements featuring tourist attractions with photos of the places as well...
(09 Jan 2015, 12:28 pm)ArrivaNE_7522 wrote [ -> ]Coast and Castles X18 should be renumbered back to 518. Also it shouldn't be branded as Max or Sapphire, it should be branded as Coast and Castles and feature e-leather seats, free wifi, power sockets and next stop announcements featuring tourist attractions with photos of the places as well...
I'd be tempted to spilt the X18 route into 2 at Alnwick. At the moment the bit south of Alnwick is hourly, more urban and not really touristy south of Amble; the bit north of Alnwick is mainly tourists and villages and only every 4 hours at the moment. I think (hope) this changes back to 2 hourly for the summer though. (In dream land) I'd also extend the X15 all the way to Berwick every hour which would only take one more bus and I think make quite a big difference to connections in the north of the county.
I have heard of people waiting at Haymarket for the bus to Berwick catching the X18 by mistake so even without changing the timings / route changing the numbering and destination screens would be welcome. I'm actually surprised they haven't split it like they have with the 85/685 and the X1/X12.
Here's another suggestion for Coast and Castles
X14 Newcastle - Morpeth express - Half-hourly
X15 Newcastle - Alnwick via Felton express - Hourly
X16 Newcastle - Berwick via Belford express - Two-hourly
515 Morpeth - Belford via Felton, Shilbottle, Alnwick (stopper service, follows current X15 route) - Hourly
518 Morpeth - Belford via Amble and The Coast (stopper service, follows current X18 route) - Hourly
X18 Summer Service - Newcastle - Belford (semi-express via current X18 route)
A1 Alnwick Town Service: Alnwick Bus Station - Alnwick Garden (bus circle) - Alnwick Bus Station - Lionheart Industrial Estate - Alnmouth Station - Alnmouth - Half-hourly
I'd be tempted to fully split the X12/X2 or alter the X2 in the following
Revert to the old classic X1 number and run...
Durham
Framwellgate
Pity Me
Chester Le Street
then as per X21 to Gateshead
Eldon Square.
Logic.
The X2 out of peak carries thin air between Chester and Newcastle. It's not an express between Chester and Durham really since it serves a lot of stops on the route. Between Chester and Newcastle it competes with a 7 min frequency 21 which many board by default. It has to suffer reliability issues through Birtley and Low Fell (though I acknowledge Pronto seems to be constantly running Durham Rd routing)
Arriva need to get rid of 'X' routes if their not expresses. It takes me 54 minutes to Newcastle on the X21, but a 5 minute walk away is the X20 express that'll get me there in 35 minutes.
(24 Jan 2015, 11:24 am)gtom wrote [ -> ]I'd be tempted to fully split the X12/X2 or alter the X2 in the following
Revert to the old classic X1 number and run...
Durham
Framwellgate
Pity Me
Chester Le Street
then as per X21 to Gateshead
Eldon Square.
Logic.
The X2 out of peak carries thin air between Chester and Newcastle. It's not an express between Chester and Durham really since it serves a lot of stops on the route. Between Chester and Newcastle it competes with a 7 min frequency 21 which many board by default. It has to suffer reliability issues through Birtley and Low Fell (though I acknowledge Pronto seems to be constantly running Durham Rd routing)
Problem is would missing stops Birtley and Low Fell cause a decrease in passenger numbers on the service, I know you don't get a large amount from these areas but I think it will have an impact on the passenger numbers and you'd have to hope the faster journey time would look more attractive and attract people connecting from other Arriva routes in Durham otherwise it will have lower passenger numbers.
(24 Jan 2015, 11:29 am)Tommy_1581 wrote [ -> ]Arriva need to get rid of 'X' routes if their not expresses. It takes me 54 minutes to Newcastle on the X21, but a 5 minute walk away is the X20 express that'll get me there in 35 minutes.
Thing is express often doesn't tend to usually mean "fast" X more commonly means limited stop, example Arriva's X66 Darlington - Middlesbrough stops at certain stops in Darlington then non-stop to Stockton then non-stop to Middlesbrough.
(24 Jan 2015, 11:30 am)Jimmi wrote [ -> ]Problem is would missing stops Birtley and Low Fell cause a decrease in passenger numbers on the service, I know you don't get a large amount from these areas but I think it will have an impact on the passenger numbers and you'd have to hope the faster journey time would look more attractive and attract people connecting from other Arriva routes in Durham otherwise it will have lower passenger numbers.
I know they've increased the stops and I could be wrong but its now
Barley Mow - Birtley Centre - Birtley Windsor Road - Allerdene (angel) - Allerdene Bridge - Stone Trough Pub - Low Fell Centre - Gateshead
Its handy to pluck passengers from the South end of Birtley but I don't think Arriva advertise the service well enough. On a total flip side. Take out the X and make it the 2?
The GNE wall is full of people frustrated with the Angel, I'm one of them, an alternative would be welcomed if more people knew! Especially considering the low cost of Arriva's weekly ticket versus Buzzfares and the lower cost of tickets (ie - £2.20 from Birtley to Gateshead vs £2.70 on Angel)
(24 Jan 2015, 11:36 am)gtom wrote [ -> ]I know they've increased the stops and I could be wrong but its now
Barley Mow - Birtley Centre - Birtley Windsor Road - Allerdene (angel) - Allerdene Bridge - Stone Trough Pub - Low Fell Centre - Gateshead
Its handy to pluck passengers from the South end of Birtley but I don't think Arriva advertise the service well enough. On a total flip side. Take out the X and make it the 2?
The GNE wall is full of people frustrated with the Angel, I'm one of them, an alternative would be welcomed if more people knew! Especially considering the low cost of Arriva's weekly ticket versus Buzzfares and the lower cost of tickets (ie - £2.20 from Birtley to Gateshead vs £2.70 on Angel)
I know Arriva are terrible at advertising their services I think all buses should have timetables onboard as people often will pick them up and they need to advertise their services more online, we can only hope that when they launch MAX on the X12/X2 that may draw more passengers to it and hopefully they'll do a launch local to the X2 and not just one in Stockton.
(24 Jan 2015, 11:35 am)Jimmi wrote [ -> ]Thing is express often doesn't tend to usually mean "fast" X more commonly means limited stop, example Arriva's X66 Darlington - Middlesbrough stops at certain stops in Darlington then non-stop to Stockton then non-stop to Middlesbrough.
Having limited-stop as 'X' is fine in my book. It takes the piss when you have routes like the X18/21/22 which stop at every place in the world.
(24 Jan 2015, 11:41 am)Jimmi wrote [ -> ]I know Arriva are terrible at advertising their services I think all buses should have timetables onboard as people often will pick them up and they need to advertise their services more online, we can only hope that when they launch MAX on the X12/X2 that may draw more passengers to it and hopefully they'll do a launch local to the X2 and not just one in Stockton.
I hope so. No offence to our local GNE drivers but the Arriva bunch always seem a lot more happier at work
(24 Jan 2015, 11:50 am)gtom wrote [ -> ]I hope so. No offence to our local GNE drivers but the Arriva bunch always seem a lot more happier at work
One thing I have noticed recently is Arriva drivers more often tend to wait until you have sat down before pulling away from a stop whilst most times GNE don't in my experience, I got on the X20 in Park Lane the other night and as soon as I'd stepped on the bus the doors were shut and he was off which made getting upstairs on President 6020 quite dangerous I was clinging on to the handrails for dear life when going round the bends in Park Lane it was horrible. No surprise for the X20 it was late.
(24 Jan 2015, 11:36 am)gtom wrote [ -> ]I know they've increased the stops and I could be wrong but its now
Barley Mow - Birtley Centre - Birtley Windsor Road - Allerdene (angel) - Allerdene Bridge - Stone Trough Pub - Low Fell Centre - Gateshead
Its handy to pluck passengers from the South end of Birtley but I don't think Arriva advertise the service well enough. On a total flip side. Take out the X and make it the 2?
The GNE wall is full of people frustrated with the Angel, I'm one of them, an alternative would be welcomed if more people knew! Especially considering the low cost of Arriva's weekly ticket versus Buzzfares and the lower cost of tickets (ie - £2.20 from Birtley to Gateshead vs £2.70 on Angel)
I think the X2 is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Passengers aren't sure where it stops and are more than happy in their comfort zone with the 21.
Drivers seem to be unsure where it stops too.
Make it express and any stragglers or one offs, ain't gonna use it.
Make it all stops and you lose any express element left.
The old Northern or United 72x series were often limited stop along Old Durham Road and Durham Road, with the then Gateshead locals left to pick up at those stops.
(24 Jan 2015, 11:56 am)Jimmi wrote [ -> ]One thing I have noticed recently is Arriva drivers more often tend to wait until you have sat down before pulling away from a stop whilst most times GNE don't in my experience, I got on the X20 in Park Lane the other night and as soon as I'd stepped on the bus the doors were shut and he was off which made getting upstairs on President 6020 quite dangerous I was clinging on to the handrails for dear life when going round the bends in Park Lane it was horrible. No surprise for the X20 it was late.
Have noticed that departure around 1610 actually departing on-time more often recently - not sure if something has changed with that scholars run?
Due to the changes tomorrow, that X20 run should no longer be affected anyway.
(24 Jan 2015, 3:34 pm)Dan wrote [ -> ]Have noticed that departure around 1610 actually departing on-time more often recently - not sure if something has changed with that scholars run?
Due to the changes tomorrow, that X20 run should no longer be affected anyway.
Was 5 minutes late on Monday although it was snowing.