(19 Apr 2018, 6:56 pm)Malarkey wrote 17 - Volvo B5TL Wright Gemini 3 - Red Arrows

6001 to 6007 and 6049 to 6055 to Stanley for the Red Kite Services 45/46 & 47
6118 to 6121 to Percy Main for DFDS 327 - Omnidekkas Withdrawn
5409 to 5418 to Deptford - Black Cats Solars - Withdrawn

More a gut instinct, rather than being under pretence of insider knowledge.
I don't think the X1 makes as much money as we maybe think it does and therefore, may explain why the B9's have been operating as long as they have, with little sign of any replacement or internal upgrade/refresh.

Across its route, it picks up punters connecting from another service. Whether it be a proportion boarding in Houghton or a lengthy load getting on at the Galleries north-bound, or Gateshead, the Galleries or Houghton southbound.
There are naturally very few points on the route (Hetton maybe excepted), where passengers board and pay a fare expecting to change to a service going somewhere the X1 doesnt.
Grasswell, Hetton, Shiney, Springwell and possibly Wrekenton, are the few places to take cash fares from experience. I would argue numbers (both financial and bums on seats) at those points are dwarfed by numbers at Houghton, the Galleries or Gateshead.

Not sure how this can be fixed.
The route needs deckers and possibly replacements for the vehicles currently allocated, but (as far as I can see), the route doesn't take as much as it should in cash fares...
Passengers across the coalfields and Washington are encouraged by theoperators business model to buy day tickets etc and change buses at key interchange points.
If those tickets are bought on a service which connects to the X1, such as the 4, X5, 8, 35, 36, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86 - then it doesn't really support any financial business case put forward to purchase new vehicles for the X1. The others maybe (in fact look how many of those services have vehicles which are newer than the B9's or have had a refurb).
The X1 no.