(28 Dec 2021, 8:05 pm)L469 YVK wrote But, if they did, CLS to Stanley for remote reliefs is less mileage than CLS to Hownsgill.
You're then adding in resources to facilitate driver changeovers at Stanley from Chester. That's dead mileage in a van or bus to a depot which currently has next to no dead mileage for driver changeovers as of the top of my head, Chester changeovers all occur at the Front Street/South Burns.
Consett, all changeovers at some stage involve dead mileage. Drivers there all either have to take a bus up to Consett or Stanley - whether that's running light to/from the depot to start/end points, or just using a bus as a shuttle to relieve a service at Consett/Stanley.
Keep the resources where they're needed anyway instead of diluting them. Not every X30/X31 changeover happens at Stanley anyway if its changed at Consett as an X70/X71. The only way I could think of avoiding it would be to interwork it with an X21, but the frequency wouldn't make it an easy interwork and you'd probably have to magic some low height deckers out of thin air which won't happen.
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