(07 Jul 2019, 9:48 pm)Andreos1 wroteCongestion, and the management thereof is the problem in hand.
Customers ain't daft. Anyone drawn to the service, under the impression it is fast and express, will be left disappointed when they find out its not.
Even though the X1 operates as an express between the Galleries and Newcastle, it's often no quicker than a 4 and a metro.
Regardless of any measures to stop/not stop, it's the existing road infrastructure that is often the ultimate deciding factor.
Fancy livery and X prefix or not.
1) Our roads are poorly planned, especially bus lanes. The few we have, they either have bottleneck blind joining junctions (eg bottom of lobley hill), filled to the brim with cyclists so renders them useless (eg durham road-harlow green) or so short, pathetic and end up merging with cars every few meters (bensham bank).
2) It's a waste of everybody's money and time to develop these 'solutions', when they offer no benefit except to the white paint and signage budget.
3) Simply put, the only express service I can think of - that is a quicker version of a normal route is the X122, where there's minimal congestion along the route until you hit hexham.
4) If we weren't negotiating traffic lights with no priority and bus lanes that are redundant (...and more painful to use than the normal road), then this would create huge opportunities for the industry.
It's great we're having these new look buses, and I believe it vastly improves how buses can be seen, but it's not going to work any magic tricks until the infrastructure takes on funding and a competent planning team - but neither seems likely for now.