Did the 44 fail?

As a regular weekend and sometimes weekday user of the service from hazlerigg to Whitley I have to say it used to pick up a fare few passengers at Blacket Street, Haymarket, St Mary's place. Never seemed that busy on the way back but got busy on the Newcastle to Hazlerigg part.

I was told when Arriva/Northumbria decided to scrap the Newcastle to whitley section this was due to timekeeping rather than anything else and they couldn't increase the PVR of the route due to lack of spare buses and drivers!