(20 Jun 2020, 8:29 pm)Storx wrote That's not streamlining though, streamlining is where you merge bus routes and remove duplicate bus routes in the same area service similar or the same purpose. It's just reducing the frequency. The Blyth expresses have ran at similar frequencies but as different disguises for the same or similar frequencies for years now without being subsidised at all. There's other routes you'd target before those.

For the record when it comes to frequencies it's
X7/X8 - Every 15 Minutes
X9 - Every 30 Minutes
X10/X11 - Every 10 Minutes

You can't combine the X9 with the X10 and X11 as they're 2 different bus routes like you did above.

Arriva have suitable spares usually for the network however they're 1493, 1497, 1501-1505. However they've chosen that it's better to have an older decker on rather than a single with limited capacity.

Also I'd rather be on a ex. London 'boneshaker' than have my bus timetable reduced, not everyone is obsessed by fancy branding and useless features. There's no point having newer buses sitting around in a depot being unused and they're not bad buses even given their age. They're not the only operator who do it up here who have ex. Brighton deckers instead.

But if an OmniDekka turned up on lets say the X30 (if Consett still have any), at least you'd know that you were on an old bus rather than being disguised as X-Lines.

But at least GoNE are doing the right thing with the X30 by diverting 1x of the X1 batch to Consett to make up the new PVR of 4 allowing a dedicated spare.

Regarding the X9 / X10 / X11, the journey times are very similar between Blyth and Newcastle and they both have a middle common point in Cramlington. Surely it would make sense given the times we're in to streamline.

Looking at Newsham Black Diamond, the X10 & X11 run on a 16-4 split (20 min freq each). If anything, reducing the frequency to every 30 minutes each would create a more evenly distributed service.

If better times do come back again, a "super-fast" express like ANE's X30 running all day would be a good option.