(26 Jul 2015, 6:23 pm)S813 FVK wrote The current X78 (Derwentside College - Consett - Stanley) gets hardly anybody on. Mainly because it only stops at the 3 places shown. Most people use the bus to get from say Consett to Leadgate and other places which the X78 does not stop at. People will therefore be less likely to use it making the service pretty useless.
On the contrary, the X78 we currently have is a peak-time schooldays-only service. I know from experience that quite a few passengers board the 78 in Consett, and alight in Stanley, and the same with the 8 from Stanley to Chester-le-Street. Likewise from Chester-le-Street to the Galleries (although the 50 provides a faster service, the 8 is seen as the next best thing), and from there to Sunderland (beating the 2/2A in terms of speed). Granted, there are a lot of local links that are served, but if people use the services between the key locations as it is, I think it's fair an express service is trialed to see just how much custom it could bring. Although I think it should omit Stanley. I'm surprised Go North East sent the brand new Streetlites through there to begin with.
