(12 Aug 2014, 3:02 pm)Dan wrote I'm on Work Experience at Riverside as you'll know already, so I've been making frequent trips on the X66 lately, with my trips in the middle of the day (while I go out for lunch) being at slightly different times every day.
When I've been travelling to and from Riverside to either the Metrocentre or Gateshead (conveniently on 9120 a lot of the time last week!), I've noticed that, in regards to the loadings, it has actually coped for most of the day. Come 3 o'clock, and that's when it starts to struggle, with loadings being particularly high at that point.
I also noticed a man in a suit who seemed to be recording passenger numbers a couple of days ago, so perhaps this was related.
It's a hard call to make. I'd suggest that five buses will definitely be ordered, on the basis that Saturdays have a PVR of 5 vehicles. Saturdays (when there are no roadworks in Dunston) usually have a walk-on service anyway, and as it's a 6 minute frequency then, I'd suggest most wouldn't care about waiting for the next bus if the one they were waiting for had to depart because it was full. That said, having multiple buses where people are crammed in isn't ideal. Putting in additional peak runs would dissolve the brand, and it's unlikely that GNE could put these on with brand new vehicles anyway (there's not a chance in the world they'd have brand new vehicles sat in the depot for the majority of the day doing nothing).
Only problem with the X66, its always busy