(02 Nov 2018, 6:36 pm)tvd wrote Ever since the old United and Tees and district days of the 65 (all stops from Easington/Loftus to M'bro) and the X56 (all stops Whitby to Loftus, then limited stops to M'bro), Arriva have been unable to find a perfect settled plan for these journeys. I think they could do a lot worse than using the idea of having both services full length of the routes with the 5A diverting through the Liverton Mines/Skinningrove, Skelton Asda & Hollybush, and Stokesley Road in Guisborough - and the 5, or call it X5, being a genuine express limited stop service from Easington to Middlesbrough.
The issues they admit to having is keeping to time beyond Swans Corner, but dont seem willing to address the fact the by that time, all passengers on the bus coming in from East Cleveland by and large only want to go to Middlesbrough town centre, not stopping and starting all the way through Ormesby and Cargo Fleet lane.
A change to the service 8 or 9 to go up to Nunthorpe or Swans corner so that either the 5 or 5A doesnt need to serve all stops beyond Swans corner would be worth considering.
The obvious flaw with your suggestion is the requirement for additional vehicles to do it. I dont think Arriva intend to use any more than the 9 buses on Service 5/5A now.
Also, the 5/5A performs the local function around Cargo Fleet/Cranmore Road, so a full express is very unlikely, unless there are two hourly variations beyond Guisborough (one via Skelton ASDA and one via both Skinningrove and Liverton Mines). Both of these would increase the end to end time.
Not sure what else they could do within the existing PVR.