(21 Sep 2013, 3:59 pm)Michael wrote Oh the fun world tour of the 18/19.. i think they should be changed, i think its long route is the reason why no one uses them.

Would you not say that they provide lots of local links, similar to Go North East's "Coaster" 1 service? I doubt anyone uses the service from Grindon all the way to Seaburn, but I imagine it will be used quite heavily for short stints throughout the full route.
When I lived on the route a few years ago (when the Alexander Dash Darts operated the service, prior to ALX200 and now Pointer 2 Darts), I used to use the service for short stints all of the time. Quite a few others used it similarly back then too.
I don't have a great deal of spare time to travel on buses for fun now so don't really get much time for the 18/19, and I rarely see it because it is so infrequent... Have the passenger numbers really dropped across the entirety of the route, or is it just at certain parts?