(03 Apr 2021, 1:41 pm)Dan wrote I do acknowledge the points on the numbering potentially leading to some confusion, but I still think it's unlikely. As Adrian mentioned in his previous post, the service is using different stands in Gateshead and Heworth, so I think that will rule out most confusion, as, chances are, those passengers will be waiting at the stand the X9/X10 services usually serve. There is argument for numbering it consecutively and running the familiar X-lines bus, in that it can be more easily identified as a Go North East bus. There's not a lot of appeal to anonymous-looking buses, and, arguably, could be why past services (such as the Pygalls Coaches 230 service between Sunderland and Hartlepool) have failed.
I'd think the issue on numbering it as the X11 would come into play if it was a more frequent service, as some folks on here were thinking when it was first 'announced'. If you had a 60 minute service complementing the X9/X10 but with it's own special fare system, then I would see how there could be confusion.
As it is, however, the service leaves all key points (Newcastle/Gateshead/Heworth on the same route) at different stops to the established X9/X10. Further, with it being a daily service, I cannot see anyone stumbling across it by accident thinking it is an X9/X10? You'd have to be awfully unlucky to get people going to the wrong stand for an X9/X10 at the exact moment the X11 passes through. Then when we get further south, I don't see it being hugely problematic at Middlesbrough either, the other 2 terminate there and pensioners (and, if we're honest, virtually everyone else) will likely use the established X93.