(30 Nov 2016, 10:35 pm)mb134 wrote Definitely agree with your points on the 35, unless they have a plan nobody on here knows about to get rid of the Streetlites, and get in more double deck vehicles? Not too sure where they'd come from like.
Regarding the X21/22 timings, they had it running like clockwork prior to those September 2012 changes (when they decided running the X22 in a loop around Bedlington, at the time serving zero stops for half of it). I used the X21 daily at the time, as I had since September 2011, and the change in punctuality was unbelievable. Made worse by the withdrawal of Olympians around the same time, it must be said.
I'd welcome the 52 changes if they were an all day thing, as it would help connect SE Northumberland even more, and provide more links, while competing with the seemingly increasingly unreliable 19. However they just seem like a bit of an after thought.
The whole reason why the routes got swapped south of Bedlington was that whilst the X21 (X31/X32) was a strong performer, the X22 was only scraping by at break even so they jigged the times to try and boost profits on the X22 (X33) as well as gaining the majority of traffic from the Front Street and Hartlands.
Although it's a bit of a s**ter, operators have to try and condense routes as much as possible. GNE did the same with the TEN and 11 by removing an 'odd-ball' that was only getting traffic during peak times (and running late all the time with older vehicles!) and focusing on the core route, with peak time express variants of course.