I used the services quite a bit.
The 26 in pre-reg days and beyond and the 777 on the Chester - Sunderland and later when it changed to Newcastle - Sunderland.
The 26 gradually saw the vehicle size reduce, despite numbers being good.
Overnight, it went from an Atlantean or Metrobus to a Handybus - eventually seeing Lances/Deltas takeover.
The service stopped running early evening, but on Fridays and Saturdays, a couple of late runs ran - leaving a 4/5 hour gap, between the last bus and the last, last buses.
It was replaced by the 777 on the Newcastle - Barley Mow stretch eventually.
The 777, was then fiddled about with so much, it replaced the 183 - leaving the Barley Mow - Newcastle bus obsolete.
But hey, there was always a 21 at the bottom of the road...
Even now, residents at the far end of Birtley don't have a direct bus to Gateshead or Newcastle (unless they walk to get a 21 or x25 OR use the m2/3 and incur additional charges).
Durham Road also sees a poorer service, with punters crowding onto a 21 and delaying it even more than it already is.
(26 Jul 2014, 8:13 pm)Marcus wrote Now that GNE's X3 has gone 'down the river', I think GNE's 71 will become the main topic in GNE's side of things.
As I use the 71 regularly, I must say, although I may have said differently in the past, I don't think there is actually anything wrong with the service itself. It just needs a better timetable in order to function properly, and I don't think the answer is to combine services, and resultantly withdrawing some. All of the places served bring passengers, and that is the main thing, it just isn't good enough in terms of reliability and
timing.
Maybe a typical run to Houghton and back could be;
Chester Front Street --- 15
Houghton Le Spring --- 50
(the extra 5 minutes allows any time lost to be made up for, and not destroy the rest of the day for the service)
Houghton Le Spring --- 55
Chester Le Street --- 30
(fair enough this leaves 15 minutes, but the service can lose, in some cases, about 10 minutes when picking up people going into Chester)
I'm crap at making timetables, so I'll let someone else try
I appreciate I may sound like a broken record, but with the 'let's make the 21 work at any cost' attitude and axing of the 21a, the service was doomed to be second or third rate at best.
You have said yourself how the passengers work, in the main - using the service either side of the county border.
Fares are ridiculous and buses have been cast offs since day 1.
People don't want to go to Chester or Houghton, hang around waiting for connections (connections need to work both ways, not just on the way out) and huddle around in poor 'interchange' facilities and pay a premium for the privilege.
You don't need to be a genius to know that either.
The service was squeezed out of the Sunderland - Houghton market and is being squeezed on local sections too.
Just wish the powers that be, listened to what passengers wanted and not forced the services onto the communities it serves.
It must make some money - however, I am not sure it makes anywhere near the money the 21a, 160, 163, 177 or 178 made prior to their amalgamation into one.
(26 Jul 2014, 8:17 pm)Marcus wrote Anyone remember the old X50 by Go North East (or, Go Northern, depending which way you look at it)? Didn't it interwork with an X20 when it got to Durham or something? Must have been a nightmare for the drivers!
Aye, especially on days like today.
Used vehicles already in the fleet, until they decided to purchase Solars for it.
Apparently it was amongst the fastest growing services around.
Not sure why they scrapped it if that was the case... :s