(Yesterday, 6:02 pm)Shrek wrote Every bus I've been on this week seems quieter than normal. Assuming that uni students on holiday and probably a lot of workers starting their Christmas holidays early has a lot to do with that. Probably best to wait until mid-January before trying to work out if the x7 etc has been hit by the train.

I'd agree that I think a fair few people are on holiday this week, but I think that's also seeing larger passenger numbers during the day as opposed to what I'd normally expect. On my way to catching something home at lunchtime, I saw the 1325 X22 leaving Haymarket very busy (busy enough for me to take note, I genuinely thought it was a late running X18 or similar with a double load for Morpeth). As I'm generally at work during the daytime M-F, I can't comment on what loadings would usually be like, but quite a few things I've seen have been carrying more folk than I'd expect them to. 

That said, I caught an X47 to Kingston Park on my way to Jesmond about 14:30, and it was pretty much carrying fresh air for the period of time I was on it. I don't have much experience using it during the day, but I thought it would be performing better than that.