(05 Feb 2016, 9:44 pm)ifm001 wrote I'd rather the additional X21 stop had been Birtley Town Centre rather than Low Fell. Stopping at all the stops on the 21 between Birtley and Newcastle takes ages. Yes Arriva X12 provides the link but no good if using buzzfares and the smartzone card is yet to be introduced in Gateshead. Which to be honest proably never will as the only stagecoach and arriva services are x12 and x34 so no point in smartzone for Gateshead.
But faster expresses between Birtley and Newcastle please GNE
Having no choice but to trundle through Birtley at 20mph would reduce reliability. Heck, you already have 10 buses an hour to Newcastle via Durham Road - and the 21 doesn't take much longer than the X12. I'd understand the want for more express buses if the time difference was 10-15 minutes, but it's not. It's half that.