(19 Feb 2020, 9:41 am)Storx wrote Personally I'd say Killingworth is less than the whole of North Tyneside though plus they'd be able to simplify the 52 / 54 into other bus routes which they run anyway. I'm not sure the locals would mind as their much cheaper than both GNE and Arriva anyway.

Weirdly I think Stagecoach would be a better fit for Ashington as they have more experience in long distance bus routes and might actually run the Berwick buses with appropiate buses (coaches like in their Scottish work) rather than Enviro's which aren't really fit for the distance of the journeys. The routes ideally would be better to be like Citylink in Scotland which they have a 35% share of the ownership with a possibly a extension to Edinburgh creating a new link between the two cities and the towns inbetween. Whereas GNE excluding the X9 / X10 don't really have any long distance routes which are mostly non-stop.

In regards to the mention of coaches Ashington used to run some primas on the expresses and they were fine even with their age (V reg) however due to DDA regulations being put into place they had to be stood down and moved over to the training. fleet primas also Done the 685 before being moved to Ashington but even though they had years left in them arriva had to consider the costumers & laws and replace them with the max upgrade but I do think coaches should be brought back.