(12 Sep 2021, 8:43 pm)James101 wrote This suggestion comes up time and again but the fact is the geography of Hartlepool doesn't lend itself to a service ever working. The town sits out just too far to the east of the A19 to make diverting the X9/X10 worthwhile and although there is some demand, there will never be enough to sustain a stand alone express service. Once a service starts diverting up the Coast Road to Peterlee and Dalton Park the journey times are unattractive.
Such a journey would command a £8.50 X9/10 style ticket which is not going to stand up to a £9.50 return on the improved train service, which also has a catchment from Seaton Carew, encompassing part of South West Hartlepool.
It is a shame GNE abandoned their service too the town, which at it's core was a very long standing service. My thoughts are that if GNE went just a bit bolder in the Peterlee area and set up a fast Peterlee - Durham service they could really sway an awful lot of Arriva season ticket holders onto their network, justifying the interurban routes to Sunderland and Hartlepool.
Separately, the 62 & X6 run within a few minutes of each other between Dalton Park & Sunderland - would swapping the times of the 62 & 62A provide a more even service along this corridor?
And this is one of the points raised time and time again. It sort feels like a vicious circle of introducing a new route proving an extra bus link each hour but the fact they’re both within minutes of each other in both directions isn’t going to promote growth or will passengers feel the benefit of two buses when they’re not spaced out. Oh and of course one route will likely steal the others passengers. One then gets withdrawn or curtailed and passengers are left with reduced capacity.
I’m still left thinking the 62 between Seaham and Sunderland is just duplication when a more regular 30 minute service from Dalton Park-Seaham-Sunderland could have been offered. The X6 could have went half hourly along that corridor potentially even via the 62 route & serving all bus stops (according to timetables, the 62 only takes 2/3 minutes longer). Current 62 could have be curtailed at Seaham. Timings could work for that too, if you interworked 62/62A with the X6 at Peterlee.
The X6 could have been renumbered as the 62 whilst the new 62 and 62A routes could have kept the 202/208 numbers.