(05 Jan 2022, 5:29 pm)Storx wrote Are these confirmed btw or just rumours (the X10/X11 in particular).

It seems a really illogical move as there's no possible way it could work with the 1/2 (they're easy 1 to Blyth, then 2 to Morpeth and reverse) and there's not enough driver hours to work it with the X21/X22/35 routes so it seems you'd have drivers driving from Ashington to drive buses literally outside of Blyth depot. Not to mention unless they've got extra running time added on the X7/X8/X9/X10/X11 then they will be constantly late since they're only on time because they swap everything around daily.

The 40's arguably would be the more sensible route since they you'd have all the Enviro's and Pulsars up at Ashington and the 43 already runs to Morpeth anyway for some driver changeovers and all the Streetlites (52/53/54) and Gemini's at Blyth plus whatever 'new' deckers (X7/X8/X9/X10/X11/306/308) they're getting. Would solve the PVR issue aswell, believe the 40's are a slightly higher PVR.

Sorry should have put in my original post that I was just collating all the current rumours, edited to specify that now. Yeah I agree the 43/44/45 would make more sense for Ashington - the difference would leave 5 spares at Blyth as opposed to 1 - perhaps to get the remaining spares there will finally be the trimming down of the 306/308 that some members of the forum have been suggesting for an eternity. The only other thought I had was perhaps the new Walkergate depot won't just be minibuses and the 52/53/54 will go there, or alternatively, not sure what the passenger numbers are like on that group but could they be downgraded to minibus?