(20 Jun 2020, 10:41 am)Storx wrote I personally don't see what the issue is with Arriva Northumbria's express network personally quality wise. Just because they're not painted bright pink with some stupid tagline on the side doesn't make them worse. I'd personally take Arriva's Gemini's anyday over any Streetdeck / Streetlite or Enviro, they're just a much better quality product without rattles everywhere even known they're 11 year old now.

I'd absolutely agree with this. The Arriva Northumbria expresses have worked very well for the best part of a decade - note how few alterations there have been to the X10/11 and X21/22 since they settled into this form. The odd timetable alteration here and there but generally they've been unchanged and that shows with the passenger numbers. People like reliable, frequent and easy to understand services - for the most part those 4 routes fit that bill perfectly. 

Cutting service frequency on any of them, particularly as they've done a good job of getting both commuters and leisure users, would be hugely detrimental. Pre-Corona, the Ashington expresses were as busy on a Saturday going into town as they were on a weekday peak - and even through the day on weekdays you had quite a lot of traffic between Newbiggin/Ashington/Bedlington and a few folk going all the way to town. My limited experience on the Blyth ones told the same story - if anything they were even busier M-F daytime.