(24 Dec 2021, 11:05 pm)Malarkey wrote As we all know Go North East and other operators have hit hard by the pandemic along with other business with many resulting to cutting costs where things are no longer commercially viable in the long term, but what if operators were to take more risks for a bigger pay off such as the success of the summer X11 from Newcastle to Whitby & Scarborough which will no doubt return in 2022.

So what else could operators such Go North East do, well I think whilst justified in some respects and I understand the above reasoning for such cut backs I think Go North East should be looking at options of expansion to their network to provide more benefits to the local communities they serve whilst offering new services to other areas that they don't serve, yes this may mean treading on some toes along the way.

My first idea come off the back of the reduction in service of Hexham X-Lines X84/X85 which in a few weeks will be a bog standard 684 and backwards step for passengers who will have a service operated by vehicles of a lower specification, far from ideal given the recent investment in new buses just 12 months ago. 

So from Hexham where could Go North East expand to given the options are limited, well you head west to "The Lake District" however not via Carlisle as you have competition their with the Arriva/Stagecoach 685 and then Stagecoach Services 554 to Keswick and iirc 104 to Penrith. Therefore any service would go via Alston where Go North East already operate Services 681/X81 to Haltwhistle & Hexham which a small number of journey's per day, a base to start an expansion coupled to that with more regular 684 thus merging the two together.

Having done a bit of research I think it would be a good idea to operate a Clockwise/Anti-Clockwise Loop of The Lake District giving passengers a frequent service to the area so we would have the following routes both operating on an hourly basis. 

X84 - Newcastle - Denton Burn - Heddon-On-The-Wall - Wylam - Ovington - Corebridge - Hexham - Haydon Bridge - Bardon Mill - Haltwhistle - Lambley - Slaggyford - Alston - Melmery - Penrith non stop to Kendal - Windermere - Ambleside - Grasmere - Keswick

X85 - Newcastle - Denton Burn - Heddon-On-The-Wall - Wylam - Ovington - Corebridge - Hexham - Haydon Bridge - Bardon Mill - Haltwhistle - Lambley - Slaggyford - Alston - Melmery - Penrith non stop to Keswick - Grasmere - Ambleside - Windermere - Kendal

The services would in turn also be maintained to X-Lines Standard so customers experience does fall below current standard whilst also opening up the Leisure industry from the North to the West which in turn would provide some competition to the train with a change at Carlisle if you are going to Kendal takes 3 Hours, taking into account layover times etc the Bus would be slower at just over 4 Hours

A breakdown of the timings across the route
65 Minutes via X84 route from Newcastle to Hexham - Would be quicker via X85 route at 41 Minutes so would likely go the latter to bring journey time under 4 hours.
97 Minutes via Alston to Penrith from Hexham
36 Minutes from Penrith to Kendal via M6/A6
49 Minutes from Kendal to Keswick via A591
22 Minutes from Penrith to Keswick via A66

So we have a minimum journey time of 3 hours 43 minutes and maximum journey time of 4 hours and 7 minutes depending on route taken, only 38 minutes longer than the X11 is from Newcastle to Scarborough..

Think that may be a step too far with how frequent it would be especially considering how many services Stagecoach have also covering the same route although could potentially be a one trip per day thing like the X11 was although driving hours may be a stretch (sort of already exists in the form of the 888 from Wright Bros which does Newcastle - Alston - Penrith - Keswick daily in the six weeks summer holidays)

An idea I had was one from Durham to Kendal via Spennymoor, Bishop Auckland, Barnard Castle, Brough, Kirkby Stephen and Sedbergh.

Away from the Lake District, another I thought of was a service from Durham to Flamingo Land via Ferryhill, Aycliffe, Darlington, Northallerton and Thirsk (potential for an integrated connection at Thirsk to reach York on Reliance's 30/30X service possibly with some ticketing arrangements in place to allow connections), maybe also run it up to Whitby (maybe Scarborough as well?) as well to offer more places to visit.

There was a lot of services like these in the 90s & early 00s from stuff I've found online but most died a death when the ENCTS passes came in, there is a chance they could work again in 2022 if passes were excluded from the services but I'm not so sure especially when I think how dead the DalesBus 831 from Middlesbrough & Darlington to Hawes and wherever else can be for much of the season.