(20 Jun 2020, 10:59 am)mb134 wrote 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.

Yeah it's definitely the same with the Blyth expresses, the only two areas where people tend to moan about is the fact the X8 is way too slow from Cowpen estate since it goes via everywhere now and Beacon Hill in Cramlington has a quite early last bus out of Newcastle.

It's definitely the same with the freqency though, personally I'd say they're some of the best routes in the North East. God help going back to the day of extended 41's etc to Blyth which didn't work at all which we had before the eventual settling of only the X10 and X11 and the X7 and X8 going via Gosforth and the Freeman which didn't go down well at all hence the removal. Some other bus companies really need to learn that having a stable bus network is better than changing it every other week, *cough Sunderland and North Tyneside*.