(26 Nov 2018, 8:23 pm)Jimmi wrote I did the 16:12 journey off Sunderland fairly recently and my experiences sort of echo the above however, we only picked up a few passengers who wanted to head along Chester Road, think only me and one other person did the full journey, around 5 or 6 got on at Doxford International on my journey.

I personally think whilst it is annoying that the journey time from Sunderland City Centre to Newcastle is longer, I personally think the X24A going to Doxford isn't a bad call, some have suggested the bulk of the X24 loadings tend to be people from Sunderland heading into Newcastle in the morning / early afternoon who then come back in the afternoon / evening, so surely it's better to be picking up a few fare paying customers at Doxford rather than running straight along Chester Road as normal and picking up pretty much nobody, although perhaps a few alterations could be made to speed it up slightly but still serve Doxford although I don't think there is much you can do there.

I personally think it should depart Sunderland direct via Durham Road to Doxford International following the route of the Go North East X5 along with observing the same stops before going onto the A19 to Gateshead/Newcastle.