(07 Aug 2015, 8:43 pm)BusLoverMum wrote I think that 9 must have dashed off towards Jarrow, empty to make up time.
We're trying again, tomorrow. I'll just have the big one, so waiting around bus stations will be less torturous. No having to leg it after a boy who has just remembered where he saw a lift (lifts have bell buttons in and bell buttons make a great stim, it seems)
I think the X21 portion of that Peterlee-Darlo route suffers from buses to destinations along the route leaving fairly close together. The 61 (which does busiest art of the route before heading off to Murton) the 22 and the X7 all leave in the 10-15 minutes before the X21. The 22 often runs fairly empty along that stretch late afternoon, even on a Saturday (I was going to say quiet, but that's often not the case, even with just a handful of passengers! And those ones always stay on all the way to Wheatley Hill!)
The numbers on the 22/23/X21 between Sunderland and Peterlee always seem a bit hit and miss with passenger numbers, some journeys can carry a fair few and others can carry next to nothing, not really done the 22/23 since the X21 was introduced as I no longer have to change in Peterlee so I can't say much about the numbers here these days but the X21 is definitely the worst of the 3 and it is probably largely down to the amount of buses that operate between Peterlee and Sunderland and the Ryhope to Sunderland section will only pick up concession pass holders as many fare paying passengers opt for the more frequent Go North East services.
(07 Aug 2015, 8:46 pm)Tom wrote They do that quite often! It's not on really, it'd be okay if it was a Jarrow one, but if your waiting for a North Shields one and it was only five minutes late you shouldn't have to wait 25 minutes for the next one.
I think it is totally unacceptable that this is happening on North Shields trips with the service only operating this far every half an hour and is the only service to North Shields in these areas so I think to leave passengers in Sunderland because it was running about 5 minutes late is **** poor really!