(04 Apr 2021, 11:38 pm)Andreos1 wrote Is anal the right word?
For years, members of this forum (and elsewhere) have pushed for new links, for new routes and for operators to do something beyond the norm.

Eventually, the X11 comes along and it appears nothing more than a wet cabbage leaf and a standard 'we tried, you didn't use it' ploy.
You know the score when organisations launch new products or a new range.
You know Greggs wouldn't go half arsed in to an item which was only on offer for a small proportion of the day and you know they would look at grabbing every opportunity they could to make the launch and the product a commercial success. The sort of success that could launch similar products which please customers and make the business money. Rather than shrinking back to the same old.
If they did go back to the same old, we would be stuck with products that were selling in 1986. Not 2021.
As much as I loved Russian cake and a jap cake, my tastes and habits have evolved, just like most people's travel habits have

Yes, I think anal is exactly the right word.

The purpose of this service has been made clear - a 'dip the toe' exercise to make use of the 'staycation' market, which is expected to be a bigger market this year than previous due to current travel restrictions - but there still seems to be a suggestion that this could, or ought, to have been something so much bigger.

I think the majority of us have concluded that the service in its current form will do just that, and the known prices of tickets offers good value for money. It might be successful, it might not be. We'll find out in twelve months time as to whether it makes a comeback (in its present guise, or, if it's done extremely well, possibly something more). As has been discussed already, there is a huge potential along this corridor, to integrate the service with the X9/X10 to provide a 20-minute frequency headway from Newcastle to Middlesbrough, exploit the lack of investment from Arriva on the X93, and make connections with East Yorkshire at the other end of the route, but accepting Explorer or X9/X10 tickets to allow local travel, when the established services are timed just 10-minutes ahead of the X11, will not be the thing that makes/breaks this service. The financial contribution from those tickets will be minimal.

Regards Stagecoach X55. Go North East has been very clear about why it is introducing the X11 service, and it makes sense given the current travel restrictions. I'm not sure there was ever really solid ground or rationale behind Stagecoach introducing the X55 service, and I'm not sure it was ever really properly marketed or promoted. Go North East's first Facebook post about the return of existing services and addition of new services (including the X11) has had 118 reactions, 39 comments and 59 shares. Seems like a fair amount of engagement, given the post was not sponsored.

This service isn't about completely revolutionising the North East bus scene. To persistently argue that it ought to have been, disregarding every counter-argument, does seem quite anal.