(28 Dec 2014, 9:54 pm)Dan wrote Yes, although I previously referred to Go North East's customers losing out, I agree that the introduction of the OK1 (and hence Arriva's X1) has benefited Arriva's customers in the long run.
It's a shame that operators cannot use their own initiative to design services which benefit customers, and it takes competition for these routes to be introduced.

Passenger numbers dwindled on what were services 23/24, following the introduction and the growing success of Go North East's X7. I think Arriva took a very bold step by introducing brand new vehicles on service 23 whilst also introducing service X21, as Arriva would expect growth from the former whilst also expecting to run the latter profitably. I expect that service X21 will be on a six-month probation period before Arriva considers making any changes or cuts to the service; hopefully if any changes are made, the company thinks about how they have sandwiched the X21 in between the 22 and 23 and how this has possibly affected the success of the route.

The sandwiching of the X21 between the 22/23 is an afterthought which I think could lead to it's demise, what I think Arriva should do is have two X21s an hour with one connecting from the 21 and the other from the 21A and time it so the services leave Park Lane every 10 minutes, flaws in this plan is the 21A runs just behind the X7 and it would be tricky to get the departures from Peterlee to Sunderland right due to the difference in journey times on the 22/23/X21. Another suggestion would be to retime the 21/21A so it is not running on top of the X7, problem is the 1/5/5A, 8/8A, X1 and possibly the 7 would also have to be changed to keep the 7/8 frequency between Darlington and Newton Aycliffe.