(15 Oct 2020, 11:19 am)Rob44 wrote 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!

I might be wrong here but didn't the Whitley side get replaced with the X8/X9 (one of them) at the same time? I know that used to carry fresh air all the time - never used it before the change though. The other replacing the 355 which eventually became the 51 partly but cut down to hourly for half the route - quite a big step down from the old branded Wright Renowns.

Never remember which one was the X8 and which was the X9.