(15 Feb 2025, 4:56 pm)L469 YVK wrote My only criticism.....why not re-route via East Cramlington? Quite a few houses popped up on the Barley Meadows Estate and still quite a walk from Delaval Station.
Something like the screenshot. It wouldn't add too much extra time either.
(15 Feb 2025, 6:25 pm)omnicity4659 wrote It would add around 7 mins to the timetable, and you may as well operate via the Ann Welfare vice the A189 too.
Better use of taxpayer money...
I think it's pretty clear that the X30 is designed to provide Blyth with a true express service, in a similar fashion to the X20, so any additional diversion would be rather counter productive. This is timed for 44 mins from Blyth to Newcastle, adding 7 mins for East Cramlington and then another few for Ann Welfare would essentially take you to just a few mins short of an X10/11 - which misses the point of this entirely. There are already enough Blyth 'express' routes which serve a fair chunk of communities before finally going to Newcastle, this is arguably the best way to make this service successful enough to be ran commercially once BSIP runs out.
The new line won't serve Blyth itself, so for those in the town centre this should be fairly appealing, and I believe it is also timed to connect with trains at Newsham.
FWIW, the current 0636 X30 tends to have enough on to fill all seats on a Pulsar (with standing on occasion) when I see it each morning - or fills a decker to about 70%.