(20 Dec 2021, 8:49 am)Adrian wrote Interesting move, if that is the case. Not only do Hexham lose their "major upgrade with £1million investment from Go North East", but arguably you're downgrading the X9/X10 in the process.

It's worth referring back to the press release back in February and reading the statements made at the time.

• "From today, Go North East has introduced luxury coaches on its premium X10 express route that runs between Middlesbrough and Newcastle via the A19, serving Stockton, Norton, Billingham, Peterlee, Dalton Park, Heworth and Gateshead."
  
• “These coaches provide extra comfort and a first-class travel experience, running fast and direct along the A19."
  
• and that "The route is cheaper and more luxurious than the train, with a return ticket costing just £8 between Middlesbrough and Newcastle, and unlimited travel available for £8.50 a day or £35 a week."
  

The quote from the company representative was that:
“We’re delighted to be upgrading our X10 service into our X-lines regional bus network with the introduction of these luxury coaches on our Middlesbrough to Newcastle express route.
“These coaches provide extra comfort and a first-class travel experience, running fast and direct along the A19.
“They will also play an important part in delivering congestion-busting low-carbon travel to help support the economic recovery of the region.”

There's a lot of emphasis there on luxury coaches and a first-class travel experience, even making the statement that it is more luxurious than the train. Are we now reverting back to a 'second-class' travel experience?

I think the upgrade of the X9/X10 to coaches was an excellent move and one likely to attract commuters away from the train. There's an automatic perception amongst the general public that coach travel is a step up from service bus travel, and in my opinion it needs something innovative like this to attract people away from the train.

What hasn't been on the operator's side is the pandemic, and perhaps if the route out of it panned out as expected in early 2021 we'd have seen a different response. Instead though, these have lasted a mere 10 months. We're not even on the road out of a pandemic yet, so not only is this barely even short-termism, it's almost a defeatist attitude that passenger numbers are never going to return. What happened to all the growth ambitions and targets (based on pre-pandemic numbers) being shouted about in the Bus Service Improvement Plan? That appears to have lasted all of five minutes.

There's also the question of reliability, and if the normal commuter loads had returned early 2021, they'd have been in the same reliability league as before the B9TLs were withdrawn. Pissed off commuters and hardly an advert for the service.

I've personally no issues with the Enviro 400MMCs, and whilst I think their introduction was a real boost for the X84/X85, they're a downgrade from the 'luxury coaches providing a first-class travel experience' on the X9/X10. A case of your words coming back to bite you?

You've done what I was going to do when I got a spare 10mins!

There's something not quite right about all of this based on the snippet of info from Dan and all of the information/blurb and marketing issued at the beginning of the year.

Reliability may be a factor, but it definitely smacks of short-termism and does nothing to entice those passengers (commuting or otherwise) out of their cars or off the train.
As someone whizzing (I use the term loosely) up and down the A19 several times a week, public transport would be an option - if there was something to connect to and got me to the end point quickly at either end (say Heworth or a point between there & Dalton Park and Middlesbrough). There isn't, so unless I have all the time in the world, I don't use it. 
Ditto the train at Durham, Newcastle, Heworth, Sunderland or Seaham.
I imagine most people are in a similar position, in that they too don't study/work/live in the town/city centres served by the X9/10 and that has to be a factor in this apparent drop in popularity. 

There's been times when I've seen cars waiting at Norton, dropping and collecting people for the X10. Maybe people have found an alternative to being inconvenienced? Maybe circumstances have forced their hand?

I mentioned external factors on passenger numbers the other day in the forum. There's bound to be some internal factors relating to this X9/10 white flag.