(29 Apr 2020, 7:12 pm)Washingtonian wrote I think the old Newcastle/Washington - Sunderland services started to suffer when the metro extension to Sunderland opened in 2002. They were very popular before then. Even still the X2 always seemed to have decent loadings, even until it was axed. If I remember rightly the Washington to Sunderlandpart of the X2 became was merged with the 773/4 and became the Silver Arrows 2A/C and was initially given a 10 minute frequency. I think there must be some demand for a Newcastle to Sunderland express service as Stagecoach's X24 has been going for a while now, so I think Go North East should never have scrapped the X2.
Aye, there was the circular 773/774 which was an amalgamation of the 638 and 777 south of the river and the likes of the 184/185 on the north.
They then curtailed them to run south of the river only as the 73/74 and then not long after came up with the 2 series.
Even they were changed and butchered up before we see what we have now.
I can't remember when the X2 was axed (maybe it coincided with the arrival of the first lot of B9's on the X1).