(10 Nov 2013, 7:58 pm)tyresmoke wrote Not in the age of the internet...

But how was it marketed back then? Surely there were still levels of promotion and marketing without the Internet?
I guess the majority of the passengers the 685 carries are older than the Internet too though, so it doesn't really matter.
Perhaps the 685 could have benefited from a marketing push when it was upgraded to Omnicity/Enviros earlier this year? Go North East made sure they marketed the X85 as 'low floor', something of which both operators of the 685 couldn't boast about previously.

Mark - have you seen what passengers are like AM/PM peaks on the X85? Of course the revenue/profit generated on both services at other points of the day is good enough for the service to be sustainable otherwise a cut would have been made by now...