(21 Sep 2013, 4:05 pm)Daniel wrote Would you not say that they provide lots of local links, similar to Go North East's "Coaster" 1 service? I doubt anyone uses the service from Grindon all the way to Seaburn, but I imagine it will be used quite heavily for short stints throughout the full route.
When I lived on the route a few years ago (when the Alexander Dash Darts operated the service, prior to ALX200 and now Pointer 2 Darts), I used to use the service for short stints all of the time. Quite a few others used it similarly back then too.
I don't have a great deal of spare time to travel on buses for fun now so don't really get much time for the 18/19, and I rarely see it because it is so infrequent... Have the passenger numbers really dropped across the entirety of the route, or is it just at certain parts?

Whenever I've seen them they certainly don't look full (apart from the Saturday of airshow weekend of course - always bemused me why they still only used midis that day!) They do provide some useful local links I think. I was just making the point that they don't provide a viable Thorney Close - Seaburn alternative for weekdays.