(19 Apr 2021, 5:06 pm)big mac wrote Is it known whether GNE's plan is to reintroduce absolutely everything as it was pre-covid once all covid restrictions get lifted, or does what we have now count as full service levels from now on, and they've sneakily cut the odd service without publicising it, such as the 13 and x7?
Doubt it. Where the X7 is concerned, both that and the X6 have usually looked dead on the regular occasion I've passed them — even at peak times. It likely won't be long before the Peterlee–Sunderland leg gets cut from GNE's network. The removal of the X7 now sees only one express service an hour between Peterlee and Sunderland. Compare that to Arriva with the 22 and 23 interworking every 15 minutes, I think it's safe to say where people are going to turn towards and that Arriva is going to dominate this journey section like they have done with Peterlee–Hartlepool. Saying that though, there's still the 55 — I got that up to Sunderland last Friday morning and it got very busy to a point where people were having to stand.
Not sure what passenger numbers on the 13 were like as it's not a familiar route to myself, but obviously you now have the X20 going up to Langley Park every half an hour, which is also allocated higher-spec buses than the 13 ever has been.