(18 Aug 2026, 9:41 am)GreenKai wrote Has anyone looked at what an intergrated service at Regent centre could do for the arriva routes going through that area?

I believe there are over 40 buses an hour each direction going down Gosforth high street.

What could be achieved if that was halved or even quartered with a bus service into town every 5 mins as well as the metro being available? Could that take the current loadings? What services would be best to increase if there were buses that were freed up from going into the city centre? Would it be able to free up a stand or two in Haymarket for other bus services?

I'm sure many have thought about it, but I would like to know what some of the challenges may be and if anyone has any detailed plans/suggestions for what could be achieved. If this is the wrong thread please let me know.

imo the Regent Centre is too close to Newcastle to really deal with the Arriva expresses, it would be annoying having to travel say 40 minutes on a bus to there, to then have to change for 10 minutes. It has to be the opposite way round.

You could make an argument with proper integration half the Blyth expresses don't need to exist and the train is the 'express' though. Newsham and Bebside aren't in a bad location to do the hub instead. 

You'd need a massive change in mind for that though. Similar with Cramlington if you dealt with the capacity issues on the ECML.

(18 Aug 2026, 9:52 am)Storx wrote imo the Regent Centre is too close to Newcastle to really deal with the Arriva expresses, it would be annoying having to travel say 40 minutes on a bus to there, to then have to change for 10 minutes. It has to be the opposite way round.

You could make an argument with proper integration half the Blyth expresses don't need to exist and the train is the 'express' though. Newsham and Bebside aren't in a bad location to do the hub instead. 

You'd need a massive change in mind for that though. Similar with Cramlington if you dealt with the capacity issues on the ECML.

Quite sobering to think for years that Arriva got away with "packing 'em in and running 'em late" every day until the Northumberland Line came along.

10 minutes late at Newsham (X10/X11), 10 minutes late at the Red Lion (X21/X22) every morning! X8 unusable North of Blyth until eventually swapped with X9 but too late!

Talking about limited stops / expresses. They took the old 44 off......again packed everyone onto 308s that were behind time by Billy Mill every morning. Then they had the cheek to take off the 11.40pm service back in 2017 (replaced by 306) despite creaming the money during the busy times, when it was clearly to get everything all back to Blyth and locked up at the same time when their trial of the late X10/X11 failed on a Friday & Saturday night.......didn't even try running it via Wideopen, Seaton Burn and Dudley as a 43E to give it a chance to make money!

Rant over, but I've got no sympathy for them about the Northumberland Line. They deserve what they got!

On the flip side, GNE had many "recession proof" services to the MetroCentre and Newcastle from similar sorts of demographic areas.......but have butchered them going on wonderful and non-logical mystery tours, yet they aren't far off the pre-October 2015 PVR with a certain company also plucking the gaps on Saturdays and school holidays.

(18 Aug 2026, 8:10 pm)L469 YVK wrote Quite sobering to think for years that Arriva got away with "packing 'em in and running 'em late" every day until the Northumberland Line came along.

10 minutes late at Newsham (X10/X11), 10 minutes late at the Red Lion (X21/X22) every morning! X8 unusable North of Blyth until eventually swapped with X9 but too late!

Talking about limited stops / expresses. They took the old 44 off......again packed everyone onto 308s that were behind time by Billy Mill every morning. Then they had the cheek to take off the 11.40pm service back in 2017 (replaced by 306) despite creaming the money during the busy times, when it was clearly to get everything all back to Blyth and locked up at the same time when their trial of the late X10/X11 failed on a Friday & Saturday night.......didn't even try running it via Wideopen, Seaton Burn and Dudley as a 43E to give it a chance to make money!

Rant over, but I've got no sympathy for them about the Northumberland Line. They deserve what they got!

On the flip side, GNE had many "recession proof" services to the MetroCentre and Newcastle from similar sorts of demographic areas.......but have butchered them going on wonderful and non-logical mystery tours, yet they aren't far off the pre-October 2015 PVR with a certain company also plucking the gaps on Saturdays and school holidays.

Aye agreed, have a feeling everyone else locally around here has similar feelings aswell. Probably the only thing that everyone agrees with in the local resident groups is that Arriva are crap which is saying something as they can't agree on anything. 

I really still don't understand why iSquared kept the Arriva name personally. It's meaningless and has an absolutely horrible reputation, as an understatement, and it's not just a local or passenger issue either. Could've been an opportunity to turn itself around but they've just continued the failings tbh. 

imo unless you have zero choice there's no incentive to use the bus if you live in Cramlington, Bedlington, Ashington, Seaton Valley or Blyth. Old knackered buses, unreliable, not particularly frequent anymore (every 30 minutes for the vast majority of people), slow, rude drivers (especially if comparing to Northern conductors) and more expensive than the train for Newcastle trips. All 'great' selling points tbh.

Positives... I'm genuinely struggling.

They can’t be doing too badly in Northumberland, considering it’s now allegedly the most profitable entity in the North East. Whether the decision was agreed with or not, closing their Newcastle depot, keeping the profitable stuff and running from two sites seems to have turned that part of the business around. I hear rumours of profit margins of over 30% (even now, with the NL fully established).

Arriva have reported in NEMSA EP minutes that the train service actually hasn’t hurt their express network as much as people think it has. In fact, it’s more likely that it has taken cars off the road, as their services haven’t seen the hit everyone expected them to. It would be interesting to see a survey to evidence that position.

I know the X21/X22 were recently reduced, but that now aligns them to a 15-minute headway, alongside the X10/X11 and the Morpeth corridor. Looking further afield, almost all of their 10-minute headways are now 15 minutes. I don’t think the X21/X22 reduction is anything to do with the Northumberland Line; I think it was a tried-and-tested, minimal-impact decision based on what happened elsewhere, but with a huge cost saving. The 35 is now up to that “what appears to be” 15-minute frequency sweet spot.

Either way, for most of the intermediate locations on routes in SE Northumberland, the bus is still faster into town overall compared to travelling to the station (likely on the same bus) and waiting for the train. The risk of not even being able to board it, followed by being dropped off a good way away from the shops and other higher-draw destinations, still means the bus remains the key mode for the majority who used it and still will.

As poor as their operation has been, I suspect they are secretly sitting on massive margins these days in most locations, and the closure of Redcar is likely the final step in creating a highly profitable region. It’s no surprise that they got around 120 new vehicles this year. Putting two and two together suggests the region is doing well to have that level of capital expenditure being spent on it.

Like them, loathe them, agree or disagree, and performance stats aside, if the numbers are where I think they are, then financially they are clearly doing at least one thing right.

(27 Aug 2026, 6:28 pm)Superman wrote They can’t be doing too badly in Northumberland, considering it’s now allegedly the most profitable entity in the North East. Whether the decision was agreed with or not, closing their Newcastle depot, keeping the profitable stuff and running from two sites seems to have turned that part of the business around. I hear rumours of profit margins of over 30% (even now, with the NL fully established).

Arriva have reported in NEMSA EP minutes that the train service actually hasn’t hurt their express network as much as people think it has. In fact, it’s more likely that it has taken cars off the road, as their services haven’t seen the hit everyone expected them to. It would be interesting to see a survey to evidence that position.

I know the X21/X22 were recently reduced, but that now aligns them to a 15-minute headway, alongside the X10/X11 and the Morpeth corridor. Looking further afield, almost all of their 10-minute headways are now 15 minutes. I don’t think the X21/X22 reduction is anything to do with the Northumberland Line; I think it was a tried-and-tested, minimal-impact decision based on what happened elsewhere, but with a huge cost saving. The 35 is now up to that “what appears to be” 15-minute frequency sweet spot.

Either way, for most of the intermediate locations on routes in SE Northumberland, the bus is still faster into town overall compared to travelling to the station (likely on the same bus) and waiting for the train. The risk of not even being able to board it, followed by being dropped off a good way away from the shops and other higher-draw destinations, still means the bus remains the key mode for the majority who used it and still will.

As poor as their operation has been, I suspect they are secretly sitting on massive margins these days in most locations, and the closure of Redcar is likely the final step in creating a highly profitable region. It’s no surprise that they got around 120 new vehicles this year. Putting two and two together suggests the region is doing well to have that level of capital expenditure being spent on it.

Like them, loathe them, agree or disagree, and performance stats aside, if the numbers are where I think they are, then financially they are clearly doing at least one thing right.

In fairness, it's not too much of a surprise really for the area as a whole. The 43/44/45, X14/X15/X16/X18/777 are goldmine routes really and the bits of them which aren't profitable are funded by the tax payer anyway, not to mention the Coast Road but let's not go there. The fact they've got the investment and everything else is running around with sheds probably backs that up a bit really. 

Agreed with the survey, personally I can't see how the trains haven't impacted them a bit though; the X7 runs around here dead nowadays. Now whether it's picking people further down the line because of the cheaper fares, new housing, the loss of the 52/53/54 and Stagecoach making a complete dogs bollocks of the X63 at Quorum is counteracting it then who knows, it would make sense really but the few times I have used it, it seemed a bit busier - especially with Quorum workers which naturally is a biggie as it's a counter flow to the peak. 

The X21/X22 who knows, don't want to speculate there too much tbf but it's had a huge capacity reduction since it's running around with singles most the time never mind just the the frequency reduction, 10 year ago it couldn't cope with them on a 20 minute frequency so people have gone somewhere.

(27 Aug 2026, 10:16 pm)Storx wrote In fairness, it's not too much of a surprise really for the area as a whole. The 43/44/45, X14/X15/X16/X18/777 are goldmine routes really and the bits of them which aren't profitable are funded by the tax payer anyway, not to mention the Coast Road but let's not go there. The fact they've got the investment and everything else is running around with sheds probably backs that up a bit really. 

Agreed with the survey, personally I can't see how the trains haven't impacted them a bit though; the X7 runs around here dead nowadays. Now whether it's picking people further down the line because of the cheaper fares, new housing, the loss of the 52/53/54 and Stagecoach making a complete dogs bollocks of the X63 at Quorum is counteracting it then who knows, it would make sense really but the few times I have used it, it seemed a bit busier - especially with Quorum workers which naturally is a biggie as it's a counter flow to the peak. 

The X21/X22 who knows, don't want to speculate there too much tbf but it's had a huge capacity reduction since it's running around with singles most the time never mind just the the frequency reduction, 10 year ago it couldn't cope with them on a 20 minute frequency so people have gone somewhere.

IMO, Arriva should've went all out and increased the 306/308 back to every 7-8 mins and re-routed the 308 via Battle Hill Drive!

L469 YVKIMO, Arriva should've went all out and increased the 306/308 back to every 7-8 mins and re-routed the 308 via Battle Hill Drive!

There is no need for the 308 via Battle Hill already more than enough buses via this tedious route. There is a need for a quick bus along the coast road and to serve Marden Estate. Why not divert the 308 via Marden then run express from silverlink to Newcastle