(15 Sep 2020, 10:26 am)Storx wrote Yeah understand that then makes sense, maybe one way to possibly speed it up is to have the local service ie the 55 try to be pushed a bit more to try and get people who do local journeys on there. Possibly even change the 55 around a bit and have a route Houghton to Peterlee (every 30 mins) extended to Wingate every hour. Then a second service from South Hetton to Sunderland also every 30 minutes with a core service of every 15 minutes through the centre between Hetton and Houghton to try and promote local journeys on the more frequent 55 and 55A (or whatever number) so the X1 can be more express and not stop as much for those wanting to go all the way through to Newcastle or wherever. It's still 7 buses an hour just trying to push people onto the opposite service rather than the X1 being the main local service.
Try and train people to think of the sense of right the 55 is the frequent service to Houghton and also to Sunderland, the X1 is the service for Washington and Newcastle rather than the 55 is the bus to Sunderland and the X1 is the service for everywhere else.
The 55 is a problem between Houghton and Easington Lane, despite it going the exact same way as the X1 a lot of people don't seem to care and let it go past. You see it quite often, a 55 sitting at Houghton Church heading towards Peterlee, with some people waiting at the stop, the 55 pulls away, and an X1 pulls and the people get on that. Personally seems mad to me, even with the new Streetdecks being introduced, but I see that on multiple routes across the North East, people only ever seem to get on the frequent service, even when a less frequent service goes the same way.