(25 Jan 2021, 9:24 am)Andreos1 wrote I appreciate there's other factors which comes in to play at Cramlington, but if the demand was there - there would probably be more of a service.
However for the vast majority of people in Cramlington, getting the bus in to the town is easier and that comes down to factors such as convenience and the location of the station vs the majority of the population. 

If you repeat that on the B&T line, again there will be similar situations.
If you're in Newbiggin, is getting a bus in to Ashington, walking to the station, hanging around waiting for a train and then hiking back up in to the town from Central Station really going to be an option for many?
If you're in Seghill and off to Uni in Newcastle or to work on Northumberland St - which is going to be the more attractive option?

I agree that for some the train will be a draw. Others will stick with the bus imo. 
As developers start building more properties in SE Northumberland, then as long as bus operators adapt to suit new markets - they should survive without too much of an issue. They have the flexibility that the train doesn't have. It's up to them to use that flexibility rather than keeping and maintaining the status quo.

Yeah definitely agreed with Cramlington mind, I always think the station there is an unused asset and it's really in the wrong place. I don't believe they could put additional services though without it compromising the long distance trains since the platforms are directly on the ECML, in the same sense there's no service to Pegswood etc barely.

Agreed with the comments about Newbiggin but ngl I'd be tempted to change if I lived up there, I can't imagine there's too many people travelling the journey anyway as 90 minutes for a 30 minute car journey is unacceptable really. Not to mention the timings are crap aswell (buses being 33 and 53 minutes the hour) so someone starting at 9am would have get a bus 7am in the morning. I think it's where the Bebside P&R will come in place and they'll be hoping for passengers from the likes of there to drive down and change rather than drive all the way.

Seghill will definitely be a bus only place though, tbh I can't see the X7 being impacted too much especially with all the new housing around Gosforth Park and New Hartley being built to top it up.

It'll definitely be an interesting in a few years time to see if we get proper integration like other cities like Leeds where you can get rail and bus tickets or we'll keep our trend of buses are buses, metro is metro, train is train and you're not meant to use more than one disconnected approach like up here.