(21 Aug 2021, 4:03 pm)Storx wrote No they weren't people we're pissed off because they turned bus routes which have took roughly 30 minutes from Seaton Valley to Newcastle with the 363/364 which suddenly turned into 40/45+ minutes, even worse at rush hour while Cramlington had 6 buses an hour going direct. They we're both an absolute disaster and it cost Arriva big time around here as people turned to driving to the Metro and some haven't changed back. For the record I was one of those people and use the Metro much more than the X7 and it's all linked back to that and I know other people who do aswell.

The Freeman never lost it's link though as it was replaced by the 52 and before that it was the Ashington buses which eventually got dumped on the 57/57A, which we never did and still don't want, and lost the link to Rake Lane at the same time which was just as unpopular (both happened roughly the same time).

Stuff like that is the exact cause of the decline of passenger numbers and why bus companies shouldn't piss about with services which have been fine for years, one noticeably still doing it.


Even known it would probably do alright the catch-22 is you'd take passengers off the X10/X11 and make them unsustainable at 10/15 minutes (not sure it's returning) so you'd end up with empty buses from Blyth to Cramlington as there's not enough demand for a 10 minute service inbetween them.

Mind I do think they should divert the X20 and run it like the old X25/X26 did between Cowpen and Newcastle, the buses clearly aren't sustainable in their current form and it should only add 10 mins or so plus open new links from Ashington to Quorum all day (you could even divert one in the morning via the ministry and cancel the extended 52 runs). Then you could change the 52 to run the X8 route between Burradon and Cramlington so they'd have 3 buses an hour (it's got 9 mins, 1 express and 2 slower then change the X8 to run non-stop from Cowpen to Cramlington and run the 52 route to Burradon and the current route from there should knock a good 10 - 15 minutes off the service. Obviously interworking patterns etc would have to be changed though.