(05 Jun 2015, 10:06 pm)Tom wrote The route definitely isn't tendered by Northumberland, the 85/685 is operated on a commercial basis, as is the 185.
I agree, knowing Arriva they would just stick Streetlites on there. But the service definitely doesn't justify double deckers, it's quite often that the service carries no more than double figures between Newcastle and Hexham, possibly because of competition by GNE on the Tynedalexpress, which seems to be doing extremely well at the minute.
Going back to this if I may.
I disagree. Once it gets past pensioner pass am, the services between Carlisle and Newcastle as a whole (not a lot of people travelling further than Hexham would be bothered to change buses to GNE there) can get very busy, I've been on 1000-1200 services before which haven't been able to fit any more standees on.
This is also true for some peak-time services I've been on from both Carlisle and Newcastle (the latter mostly being people going to bloody Throckley!)
Streetlites wouldn't last very long, given their unreliability on other routes. An increase of frequency would be needed if this was the case also.
As much as I dislike them, I'd say the Omnicities are good for the single-deck operation of the route (those or my preferred choice, the Pulsars which aren't restricted) with double-deck operation possibly going to VDL SB300/Wright Eclipse Gemini 2s or ADL Enviro 400s (I think the former would be more suitable).
The main reason I give for it to be upgraded to MAX/Sapphire is it could run in direct competition with the hourly rail service. Hell, the X85 to Carlisle would take around the same time as the train, given it doesn't have excessive calling points.
Mind you, none of this would properly work if Stagecoach were to run as they do so now - they haven't changed to match Arriva exactly in the past couple of timetable changes (for example keeping the one service per day via Gilsland, the 1754 Carlisle to Hexham) as well as changing the route number to match Arriva's.
If Stagecoach didn't really want to change a lot, the vehicles they currently use (ADL E300s) are absolutely fine; although I've seen them pretty busy at times - E400s could be used here.
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