(27 May 2023, 10:53 am)Storx wrote I disagree personally. People just don't go to town as the bus goes via Cramlington so why bother going further if you don't need to.

If there's a train that goes direct to Newcastle, why bother with the bus at all, and just go straight to Newcastle in the same time roughly.

The X7/X8/X9 are borderline unusable lately because of Sandy Lane / Matthew Bank so unless something changes fast, all 3 will be impacted massively.

Some people are underestimating the damage the trainline will do but I'm going to flip the coin and say I honestly couldn't give two hoots about the buses, there's a new train line that gets me into Newcastle in 20 minutes or so every 30 minutes regardless to time vs from 40 minutes via bus and that from is generous as it's more like 90 minutes at peak times lately

Again, as Omnicity4659 has said, I think yourself and others are massively underestimating the amount of local travel on the SE Northumberland 'X' services. 

Newbiggin to Ashington, Ashington to Stakeford, Ashington to Guide Post, Ashington to Bedlington, Bedlington Station to Bedlington, Blyth to Cramlington, Ashington/Bedlington to Cramlington Industrial Estates, Ashington/Bedlington/Newbiggin/Blyth to Wansbeck Hospital, Bebside to Blyth, Newsham to Blyth are all popular travel patterns that aren't impacted *at all* by the introduction of trains. There's also the flows from Newcastle to Cramlington Industrial Estates, which are nice earners for the buses leaving Newcastle during the AM peak.

On top of those flows, there's all the less than optimal station locations. If you're living in the southern part of Ashington around The Elephant, are you walking to the train station (about a 25 minute walk itself) and getting the train - or just hopping on the bus to Newcastle? Same goes for those living in the centre of Blyth and Bedlington. 

I think it's reasonably clear, with the number of parking spots being created, what the target market is for the line.

Even for the Newcastle traffic - I'd urge you to see the Morpeth express services each morning. At the very least the 0713 X18, 0728 X14, and 0743 X15 are pretty much full, every day, and lots of that custom is from Morpeth. Even the 0803 X18 is looks pretty healthy leaving Morpeth Bus Station on the days when I see it.

Anecdotally, mainly from what I've seen myself on my commute and heard from drivers that I've talked to, passenger numbers currently are very healthy too - I'd suggest this could be partially why we're not seeing huge cuts on these routes in July.