(27 Jan 2016, 4:21 pm)R852 PRG wrote I can't personally see a gap in the market that justifies a service between Morpeth and the Metrocentre. There are plenty of buses linking Newcastle with the Metrocentre, and then a fairly frequent service between Newcastle and Morpeth. Although, that said, I think Arriva could attempt to snatch some customers from Go North East and Stagecoach, by providing a service (possibly every 15 or 20 minutes) for connecting customers to use between Haymarket Bus Station and the Metrocentre, with customers having the option to use that as opposed to a service operated by a competitor.
The 18 is a local bus service while the X21 is an express passenger service, and I think it's best that they stay that way, the only thing I can think of would be to alter the times of the 18 so that services connect with inbound X21s and outbound X21s, to try and promote customer usage.
I think having the X25, 13 and 14 amalgamated into one service wouldn't be a bad idea, but it would result in a big change of the driver duties, as a lot of 13/14 journeys interwork with the X22 at Durham.
I also think Arriva should have a bus service between Newcastle and the Metrocentre, as all they have at the moment is the hourly Nexus supported service 84.
Don't know why people keep suggesting to merge the 18 and X21 as on the current 18 route it wouldn't really be possible to do much with the service running between Woodhouse Close to Coundon with Bishop Auckland Bus Station being slap bang in the middle of the route. I think changing the route may see a decrease in passenger numbers as I think part of the reason the 18 does so well is people from the Coundon end of the route can travel beyond the bus station to reach Morrisons/Asda and the general hospital plus Woodhouse Close Estate whilst the more unreliable Arriva 56 service terminates at the bus station so a change of bus is required, although one journey an hour interworks with the 86 to Toft Hill. The departure times for the 18 in both directions are timed to meet with the X21 in Bishop Auckland Bus Station, so providing the services are running to time you should be able to connect between the two services.