(24 Feb 2024, 12:11 pm)Storx wrote I'd personally make the argument if you merged the X9 and X10 routes so it was something like: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/55.08589...?entry=ttu, what I posted before.

You'd actually increase the number of buses from Blyth to Cramlington. If there's a big drop from Newcastle to Blyth then you wouldn't need 4 BPH doing the Cramlington to Newcastle section, and 3 BPH would be more than enough, run that throughout you've reduced the number of buses on the whole route but in fact you're actually increasing the frequency to 3 BPH from 2 BPH for most people, there's few negatives really bar the small section of Newsham Road being unserved and it's a slightly longer journey time for some to Blyth (but who the hell wants to go there anyway).

Personally if I lived on those routes, especially in the Cowpen area, I'd be happy with that change as it's positive yet reducing the PVR imo, I wouldn't give a damn about going around some fields near Bedlington or Boghouses, even if the train didn't exist tbh.

You could then turn the X8/X9 (current X11) into the direct Blyth to Cramlington services instead which might help those two services rather than the X8 kind of just existing as it does now.

Using current timings between points on your route, I get the following as times on your combined X9/10:
Blyth to Cowpen 7 mins
Cowpen to Newsham Road 13 mins
Newsham Road to Laverock 10 mins

Since it then also goes via Horton Drive on your route, that's another additional 5 mins between Newsham and Cramlington Shops vs the current X10. 

Total time from Blyth Bus Station to Cramlington Shops of 47 minutes. 

The X10 currently does it in 28 minutes, even the X9 manages it in 39 minutes. How is slowing the journey down by between 8-19 minutes better for anyone?