Just checking the timetables properly:

20 - 54 mins to Durham Bus station
X20 - 46 mins to Durham Bus Station

Only did the Sunderland to Durham section, as that's what I would probs use the most.


Not much of a difference and not much of an express....

(08 Jan 2024, 6:30 pm)Rapidsnap wrote 6308-6314 are Volvo B5TL with Wright Gemini 3 bodywork. They are not Streetdecks which is vehicles completely build by Wright. The front end design is known as the stealth front.

Thanks. So that batch was originally the X9/X10s then put in Xlines blue for an easier life on X21.

How come the green Xline streetdecks are becoming available to go onto the X21?

(08 Jan 2024, 8:09 pm)Michael wrote Just checking the timetables properly:

20 - 54 mins to Durham Bus station
X20 - 46 mins to Durham Bus Station

Only did the Sunderland to Durham section, as that's what I would probs use the most.


Not much of a difference and not much of an express....

Presumably you are looking at the departure times (ie those quoted on the website), not arrival (as they probably aren’t on the website).

A 10+ minute saving in journey time is quite attractive, in my opinion. It could be sped up further but there is a balance to be struck with actually stopping to allow people to use the service for something that isn’t just end to end traffic.


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(08 Jan 2024, 9:11 pm)ne14ne1 wrote Thanks. So that batch was originally the X9/X10s then put in Xlines blue for an easier life on X21.

How come the green Xline streetdecks are becoming available to go onto the X21?

They've been available for ages, ever since they butchered the Consett network (X46/X47/X70 scrapped, X30/X31 slashed by half)

(08 Jan 2024, 10:52 am)Unber43 wrote Wonder if theyll be repainted to Pink?, with 6356-63 (to Blue)

NO doubt most the time  56-63 will spend all their time circling East Gateshead while some leaky E400 are on X21

And The Volvo StreetDecks spend most of their time not on X20

Time for all Xlines buses to be in a generic Xlines livery in my view (perhaps the red rear like the X1)

(08 Jan 2024, 9:57 pm)busmanT wrote Time for all Xlines buses to be in a generic Xlines livery in my view (perhaps the red rear like the X1)

That would be sensible. Roadstripe livery is as prominent as any branding now and it suits the whole fleet especially with franchising on the horizon 

I’m not sure the 21 for example is successful because it’s branded the Angel but morel likely because it’s been consistently served since the 1900s.

(08 Jan 2024, 10:52 am)Unber43 wrote Wonder if theyll be repainted to Pink?, with 6356-63 (to Blue)

NO doubt most the time  56-63 will spend all their time circling East Gateshead while some leaky E400 are on X21

And The Volvo StreetDecks spend most of their time not on X20

How many times I've said this.....but a waste of muscle having an interworking pattern for the sake of Ellison Road bridge, when GNE could have all E400MMC at Riverside covering the X10 & X21.....plus the TVT on Sundays to conserve the B9TLs!

Any inefficiencies not interworking the X30/X31 with any of the Consett services will be ironed out by reduced lost mileage & breakdowns especially all the way in South West Durham from Riverside!

There's a reason why Arriva Ashington have E400MMC's on the Ashington & Alnwick 'X' work.

(08 Jan 2024, 10:37 pm)L469 YVK wrote How many times I've said this.....but a waste of muscle having an interworking pattern for the sake of Ellison Road bridge, when GNE could have all E400MMC at Riverside covering the X10 & X21.....plus the TVT on Sundays to conserve the B9TLs!

Any inefficiencies not interworking the X30/X31 with any of the Consett services will be ironed out by reduced lost mileage & breakdowns especially all the way in South West Durham from Riverside!

There's a reason why Arriva Ashington have E400MMC's on the Ashington & Alnwick 'X' work.

Aye, Aye you keep banging on about it

(08 Jan 2024, 10:52 am)Unber43 wrote Wonder if theyll be repainted to Pink?, with 6356-63 (to Blue)

NO doubt most the time  56-63 will spend all their time circling East Gateshead while some leaky E400 are on X21

And The Volvo StreetDecks spend most of their time not on X20

They could just swap the colour for each route around and save on partial repaints.

Knew the X20 would be BSIP. Called it. Gne just using it every second of the day. 

These changes are pathetic to anyone. 

X45/47/6 all to serve Metrocentre Coach Park in the morning. (Nothing mentioned)

93/94 serving Glasshouse (Sage) again. Didn't work the first time

27 every 30 on an evening. (Forgot the metro stops running after 8pm)

X20 back yet not mentioned what's happened to the 20A

65 was meant to have time changes (not anywhere)

74 mentioned its stopping on Claremont Road in Newcastle both ways (already does that)

These changes to me look to have been done in a rush and yet 4 change again are using BSIP. Yet people will come on here and say "well arriva are wasting it on a new service and stagecoach are doing terrible with it"

(09 Jan 2024, 9:55 am)Aaron21 wrote Knew the X20 would be BSIP. Called it

73 NEB points to you, sir.

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(09 Jan 2024, 9:55 am)Aaron21 wrote Knew the X20 would be BSIP. Called it. Gne just using it every second of the day. 

These changes are pathetic to anyone. 

X45/47/6 all to serve Metrocentre Coach Park in the morning. (Nothing mentioned)

93/94 serving Glasshouse (Sage) again. Didn't work the first time

27 every 30 on an evening. (Forgot the metro stops running after 8pm)

X20 back yet not mentioned what's happened to the 20A

65 was meant to have time changes (not anywhere)

74 mentioned its stopping on Claremont Road in Newcastle both ways (already does that)

These changes to me look to have been done in a rush and yet 4 change again are using BSIP. Yet people will come on here and say "well arriva are wasting it on a new service and stagecoach are doing terrible with it"

20A will continue to run evenings and Sundays hourly.

(09 Jan 2024, 10:23 am)Retro Nero wrote 20A will continue to run evenings and Sundays hourly.

Doesn't mention it though. So people don't know

(09 Jan 2024, 9:55 am)Aaron21 wrote Knew the X20 would be BSIP. Called it. Gne just using it every second of the day. 

These changes are pathetic to anyone. 

X45/47/6 all to serve Metrocentre Coach Park in the morning. (Nothing mentioned)

93/94 serving Glasshouse (Sage) again. Didn't work the first time

27 every 30 on an evening. (Forgot the metro stops running after 8pm)

X20 back yet not mentioned what's happened to the 20A

65 was meant to have time changes (not anywhere)

74 mentioned its stopping on Claremont Road in Newcastle both ways (already does that)

These changes to me look to have been done in a rush and yet 4 change again are using BSIP. Yet people will come on here and say "well arriva are wasting it on a new service and stagecoach are doing terrible with it"

As much as I like slating GNE, the BSIP, wasting of money on the X20, is on Nexus / DCC.

(08 Jan 2024, 9:47 pm)Dan wrote Presumably you are looking at the departure times (ie those quoted on the website), not arrival (as they probably aren’t on the website).

A 10+ minute saving in journey time is quite attractive, in my opinion. It could be sped up further but there is a balance to be struck with actually stopping to allow people to use the service for something that isn’t just end to end traffic.


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Have to agree here, considering there's only about a 20 min difference between the "fast" train and the stopping train NCL-KGX, cutting 10 mins from a 50ish mins journey is pretty decent IMO.

(09 Jan 2024, 7:10 pm)stagecoachbusdepot wrote Have to agree here, considering there's only about a 20 min difference between the "fast" train and the stopping train NCL-KGX, cutting 10 mins from a 50ish mins journey is pretty decent IMO.

Depends really doesn't it, because if there's a 20 already in and the X20 isn't due for another 10 minutes, there's no point in getting that.

Tbh I always got the X20 because it had chargers (that work) and I just prefer a merc over a streetlite.

Since it's been funded by the council imo something like the below would be better, purple areas being stopping and black being non stop:


You could have the whole route every 30 minutes, with extra shorts running between the two P&R sites and then scrap the PR1 and save money there rather than having buses duplicating each other (this is how it works in York). Plus Doxford Park should be served all day imo, but it's just as quick to go via Silksworth and would open new links South.

The 20/20A would stay as it is now.

The 65 changes have cut the layover time at Seaham from 14 minutes to 5 minutes. Haven’t checked the layover at Durham as it interworks with the 20.

(09 Jan 2024, 9:22 pm)Drifter60 wrote The 65 changes have cut the layover time at Seaham from 14 minutes to 5 minutes. Haven’t checked the layover at Durham as it interworks with the 20.

Its got 7 mins at Durham (baring in mind the 65 now takes 1hour 1 min, it used to take 56 mins), then 7 mins in Sunderland then to goes onto a long 20 which has 3 mins at Hosptial but then about 6 at Durham Bus Station

So the 93/94 mention "additionally serving The Glasshouse between Gateshead and Saltmeadows Road"

Well did they forget to tell people. Its only evenings

Nice to see they finally added the 65 timetable today.

(09 Jan 2024, 10:10 pm)Aaron21 wrote So the 93/94 mention "additionally serving The Glasshouse between Gateshead and Saltmeadows Road"

Well did they forget to tell people. Its only evenings

Nice to see they finally added the 

Services 93/94

• Minor timetable changes to improve reliability. We are pleased to announce that in partnership with Nexus, with financial support from the Government’s Bus Service Improvement Plan, services 93 and 94 will now run every 30 minutes on an evening, additionally serving The Glasshouse between Gateshead and Saltmeadows Road.
  

Spacing between departures from Durham to Sunderland isn’t great. X20 just 3 minute after a 20 and sharing the same stand. It won’t be helpful for X20 loadings as this effectively narrows the time saving down to 5 minutes to Houghton.

(09 Jan 2024, 11:10 pm)James101 wrote Spacing between departures from Durham to Sunderland isn’t great. X20 just 3 minute after a 20 and sharing the same stand. It won’t be helpful for X20 loadings as this effectively narrows the time saving down to 5 minutes to Houghton.

It’s impossible to get an equal co-ordination between the 20/X20 in both directions and across the entire route (by virtue of one being faster than the other…)

The biggest flow of passengers is Sunderland and East Herrington to Houghton-le-Spring, where you will note co-ordination between the two services is much better in both directions (aiming towards a bus being every 7-8 minutes on the common section).

It’s one of those situations where the service is trying to achieve more than one thing, and there’s limitations to how it can do everything.

Towards Durham is much better.


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(09 Jan 2024, 9:55 am)Aaron21 wrote Knew the X20 would be BSIP. Called it. Gne just using it every second of the day.

Well done to Go North East for improving their bus services, using funding allocated by local authorities as part of the… Bus Service Improvement Plan!

Such a novel idea.


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Think what I may do is start a bus company. Introduce a temporary timetable for staffing reasons and then get the tax payer to pay for me to restore the previous service levels. Job done.

Same goes for Arriva before anybody pipes up.

(09 Jan 2024, 8:38 pm)Storx wrote Since it's been funded by the council imo something like the below would be better, purple areas being stopping and black being non stop:


You could have the whole route every 30 minutes, with extra shorts running between the two P&R sites and then scrap the PR1 and save money there rather than having buses duplicating each other (this is how it works in York). Plus Doxford Park should be served all day imo, but it's just as quick to go via Silksworth and would open new links South.

The 20/20A would stay as it is now.

Eek! You might want to dive it through Farringdon - there's a reason Stagecoach only use that route as a diversin or by driver discretion.

(10 Jan 2024, 8:30 am)DeltaMan wrote Think what I may do is start a bus company. Introduce a temporary timetable for staffing reasons and then get the tax payer to pay for me to restore the previous service levels. Job done.

Same goes for Arriva before anybody pipes up.

Take the 'for staffing reasons' out, and it's pretty much what every operator has done since deregulation.

(10 Jan 2024, 10:06 am)F114TML wrote Eek! You might want to dive it through Farringdon - there's a reason Stagecoach only use that route as a diversin or by driver discretion.

Must say never seem any problems in a car, quite often go from Morrison's to Sainsbury's when around there. Guessing the problem is Silksworth Lane is too narrow for a bus?

(10 Jan 2024, 3:59 am)Dan wrote Well done to Go North East for improving their bus services, using funding allocated by local authorities as part of the… Bus Service Improvement Plan!

Such a novel idea.


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Intrigued how they couldn't do this all without funding mind.

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(09 Jan 2024, 11:10 pm)James101 wrote Spacing between departures from Durham to Sunderland isn’t great. X20 just 3 minute after a 20 and sharing the same stand. It won’t be helpful for X20 loadings as this effectively narrows the time saving down to 5 minutes to Houghton.

I'd have thought it would make sense for it to be the other way around. 
X20 takes the heavy load to help support the investment it's getting. 
20 sustains itself with those travelling locally or to locations the X20 doesn't serve.