1: Runs between Blyth and Ashington only.
X7: Current route additionally serving Amersham Drive (Every 20 Mins)
X8: Current X8 route between Blyth and Shankhouse, X9 route from there to Newcastle (Every 30 Minutes)
X9: Withdrawn
53: Extended to Blyth every hour via X9 route and ran by Blyth potentially with Minibuses. (Every Hour)
X19: Newcastle to Annitsford via A189 and Quorum (Limited Stop - South Gosforth / BT Call Centre / Quorum / White House Farm Only), X8 to Eastfield, A189 Direct to Ashington, 1 route to Widdrington (Every Hour)
X20: Same as X20 to Ashington, current X20 route (Every Hour)
There's lots of benefits such as:
- Slightly quicker journey time from Cowpen to Newcastle
- More frequent buses through Seaton Valley to Newcastle / Blyth
- Quicker express service for High Pit and Annitsford to Newcastle plus extra links up North, Cramlington links kept with X8/57/57A
- New direct links to Cresswell from Newcastle to the caravan parks for holidays and day trippers.
- Loss of duplicate buses in places (52/53/X8 in Burradon, 57/X8 in Annitsford, X8/X9 in High Pit to even loads out a bit)
- Slightly slower X20 journey times but benefit of 30 minute service from Ashington and additional serving a few extra places to make it more viable (it's dead atm).
- Removal of the slow X8 express between Cramlington and Newcastle; it's all served by the 52 anyway (less duplicating routes).
- Merger of X8/X9 with potential to grow (potentially could push to 20 minutes if there's demand).
- Opportunity to put minibuses back on the 53, it really doesn't need full size buses (or it didn't use to at least).
- New direct link from Ashington to Quorum.
- New direct link from Killingworth to Blyth.