(11 Oct 2022, 8:56 am)Drifter60 wrote We’ve had this discussion before. Parkside has a more than adequate service, every 12 minutes (every 15 mins due to temporary reductions right now) giving 5 buses an hour. Parkside has one way in, one way out it’s only suitable for services terminating there. If you were to extend/ terminate other routes up there it have to be at the expense of some journeys on the 60. But the whole idea of when the 60 was introduced was to give a regular service to Parkside instead of a mismatch of routes/frequencies. Connections can be made at the harbour.
A true Newcastle express from Seaham I think would have to take 1 or 2 routes to be a true express, either via Station Road and Seaton to Houghton then route join the X1 route from there. Or limited stop via Ryhope and Tunstall to Doxford and then A19 to go either up to Heworth or along the A1231 to serve Washington. Going up to Dalton Park then through Murton to Hetton and then along the X1 route wouldn’t be an express service it’d be too slow. The X1 from Dalton Park wasn’t really a Newcastle express, the X10 does that. It was just a new direct link to Houghton and Washington which didn’t and now doesn’t anymore exist.
There's already an express from Seaham it's ran by Class 156's and Class 158's and it's used by 140k people a year* which works out at about 20 people per vehicle which isn't bad.
* not all go to Newcastle