(25 Jul 2015, 3:06 pm)Kuyoyo wrote And that is exactly why you don't work for any bus company. Why make things complicated - all I can see in Tommy's suggestion is a simple renumbering, which is easy to communicate to the passengers. Your backwards step would just confuse people and likely make the Ashington Sapphire the worse performing of the branding by actually losing trade! How many times - today it's about simplicating networks (hence the current ongoing consultation on Teesside to simplify the Netherfields services).Ok then, but how about a 52 minute journey on the X31 / X32 from Ashington to Newcastle with improved reliability across all three routes and also taking into account that the X33 wouldn't need to go past the Police Station to get onto Bedlington Front Street thus actually reducing delays. People want quick journeys from A to B and if passengers were to travel from Newcastle to Bedlington, parts of Stakeford and Ashington, they'd know that:
X20 = Very quick
Sapphire X31 / X32 = Relatively quick, frequent, well equipped, punctual.
MAX+ X33 = Slow, less frequent, local links if needed, punctual.
A just over 10 minute difference between the journey time on the X20 and X31 / X32 would encourage customers but at nearly 20 minutes more sometimes with delays, then that begs to differ. The X21 / X22 are good in the fact that they're simple but they're simply not quick enough and the quality of the vehicles used (some of the 57 plates) don't help either.