(23 Sep 2014, 8:10 pm)Dan wrote See - I'd argue that, around Peterlee, the services perform somewhat decently. cbma06 may be able to provide a greater insight in regards to what he sees...
Granted, fare-paying passengers are few and far between, and Concessionary Pass holders make up the majority of the passengers, but I definitely think Peterlee is the place to go to see services 23/24 performing at their best.
There may be a lack of connections, but I think that the connections they do have in Peterlee suffice to provide a decent enough service, and that's due to the fact that they serve a few of the little villages.
Just had a quick little test on Flickr... Typed in 'arriva north east service 23 sunderland' and 'arriva north east service 24 sunderland' and categorised by 'Most Recent' - the photos speak for themselves, and certainly backs up what I've said about the loadings in and out of Sunderland.
I don't know the area around East Durham much at all, but I'd think anything they're running into Sunderland would perhaps suffer from the same problem as the X2 down Durham Road.
We know the passenger flow on Durham Road is thick and fast, and also that there's a massive gulf between what you'd see in the figures for the 21 and for the X2. Problem with the X2 though, is that between Pity Me and Eldon Square, there is not a single other Arriva connection in sight. Some 50 minutes of travel time, with god knows how many stops.
If there were say a few local services in Chester, a few in Gateshead, and the odd connection to Washington? Probably a completely different story.
That being said, it doesn't cater for drivers not knowing the product, and it's a disgrace that this is still being mentioned on here. It must have been at least a year ago since Dan first complained to Arriva. If you're not going to look after your customers, then another operator will be more than willing to.