X7/X8 Service
Newcastle City Council originally advised the Killingworth Road would be re-opened on 28 Feb 2018, however the closure has been extended until the summer (date tbc) as there are complications with the utilities works. Newcastle City Council have been subsidising the diversion of some Arriva buses during the closure, the funding for that runs out at the end of Feb (despite the road still being closed) as a result;
- from the 18 March 2018 the X7 will leave Quorum and go straight down Benton Lane then turn right at Four Lane Ends, rather than diverting through Balliol and Longbenton first. This is actually a good thing for people working at Quorum as it will make the bus journey to town a lot quicker on the X7 bus.
- The X8 will still travel through Balliol and Longbenton before heading to Newcastle. There are just some minor changes elsewhere on the route
NOTE the X7 and X8 bus do not stop at Four Lane Ends, they just travel past it.
Change to the 555 Service
- The 555 will no longer travel to the Regent Centre after the last journey to Four Lane Ends as there wasn’t enough people using the service to make it commercially viable.
NOTE: we are aware of the issues with some of the morning services not operating to timetable, I have reported this to Arriva and they are running off some reports to see if any more tweaks to the service are required. We are hopeful that the service will return to a 25-min loop when the Killingworth road re-opens in the summer.
Service 52 and 54
Arriva have been monitoring passenger numbers on their evening services and they have recorded very few people using them. Some of the evening routes are no longer commercially viable and as a result:
- The number 52 bus to Newcastle at 21:05 will be withdrawn from 18 March 2018
- The number 54 bus to Newcastle at 21:19, 22:06 and 23:06 will be withdrawn from 18 March 2018
NOTE: Arriva have applied for some funding from Nexus to subsidise the evening buses on the 54 services so there is a chance that they may come back on in the future. If the withdrawal of the services affects any of your staff please provide me with details so I can pass them onto Arriva to support the application of the subsidy.
Most timetables will change again in the summer when Killingworth Road is re-opened.