(09 Jan 2015, 7:39 pm)Kuyoyo wrote X21 is going to need something before long - the Spackle is on its way after all 

I'm not sure why Go North East need to consider Arriva upgrading their services to "Sapphire" and "MAX" specification as a threat?

When a service is converted to "Sapphire" specification, Arriva only expects to see organic growth, at a rate of 6% in the first year of conversion, and a further 3% in the second year of conversion. The organic growth is expected to be generated by providing a more reliable service, which is marketed as a premium product.

The 'sparkle' may be on its way, but I think it would be irrational to suggest that Go North East's current fare-paying passengers will migrate to use Arriva's equivalent services. When travelling from Newcastle to Bishop Auckland, Go North East's "Pronto" X21 service takes just 1hr 22min. To complete the equivalent journey by Arriva's services, customers would have to connect from the X2 service to the 6 service in Durham. If you happen to be travelling on an xx:50 X2 departure out of Newcastle to complete the same journey, the journey would take 1hr 47min, and this relies on meeting a 12-minute connection in Durham.

As stated previously, power sockets appeal to me as a heavy mobile phone user. In the previous comparison of Go North East's TEN / Toon Link services between Newcastle and Blaydon, the journey time differed by 6 minutes. In this example, the difference in journey time is 25 minutes. If using Arriva's services isn't cheaper than Go North East's, even I (as someone who usually opts to travel by the bus with power sockets over the one which doesn't) wouldn't migrate from my current service to another...