(05 Nov 2023, 1:17 pm)Storx wrote He's part of the reason, things are in this mess. The Chester Le Street handling was as ugly as this and it's never recovered with constant cancellations at Riverside ever since.21 & X1 should never have been touched IMO.
Absolutely wrecked staff morale with his mishandling at the same time. Not to mention cutting frequencies way too early, unlike Stagecoach and Arriva who held off for months to try and actually let things recover and they have in most areas with some areas actually increasing.
I wouldn't be surprised if stuff like the 21, X1, 45/46/47 etc. would've recovered better if they didn't cut it down to the bone straight away, they're all no different to the X21 and X22 at Ashington which are doing very well. Similar to the X9 and X10, especially with the rail strikes but no the strike hammer was done.
I think the biggest mistake for the X45/X46/X47 was going fully double deck. I don't know what the loads were like on the 45 & 46 although the 47 was popular and did get ex 6118-21 purchased for that route before being moved to Stanley/Consett and interworked with the 45 & 46. At least when the 309 & 310 got upgraded to deckers back in 2013-14, GNE waited until the Mercs & Omnicities were getting regular standing loads at peak times which they were.
The X9 & X10.....think that boiled down to the withdrawal of coaches plus only being enough suitable vehicles left over for a PVR of 4x. Big mistske though as it would've made money with the rail strikes plus loads actually look very healthy on the X10.