(22 Aug 2023, 4:18 pm)Coastliner700 wrote I don’t see why they’d sell Northumbria but that’s the title of this thread. I just commented it they weren’t to sell outright and just to retrench! Let’s not forget the 685 which at one point was solid. There are all sorts of options for operating it end to end and back again.

Aye, but them giving up services which make money is unlikely given that they want to sell the business - nobody is buying you out if you have nothing making money. 

The 685 was a very different situation. The Morpeth routes combine for a 20 minute frequency between Morpeth and Newcastle, and have full seated loads on deckers in the morning peak most days just for starters, versus an hourly route that at even at it's peak only needed a coach? There's obviously also the depot closure which meant they couldn't operate it for any longer. 

Operating it end to end and back again is possible, but only with a break somewhere. You couldn't even run it as an X18 from Berwick to Newcastle and as an X15 back, as that would still be over an hour over legal driving hours. They'd need facilities in Morpeth or Alnwick, but also a ferry car to get the first/last break of the day back from/to Berwick.