(17 Feb 2025, 9:02 pm)PH - BQA wrote 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%.
See I don't think it'll ever be commercially viable as it's going to take a dent on the X10/X11, add the railway line into the mix then they could be rather empty leaving Blyth. I don't know what the picking up is like in Cramlington but it's a very car orientated place, not the sort of place, where buses generally do well.
Assuming a fair chunk of people move from the train to Newcastle, do we really need 9 buses an hour from South Blyth / Newsham heading towards Newcastle? 6 of them via Cramlington aswell. It's complete overkill.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/55.04822...FQAw%3D%3D - imo going into Blyth on a route like this would be better use of the X30 and give the parts of Blyth with no service (parts of Cowpen) or the extrememly slow X9. Least you're not competing against the X8/X10/X11 which are very likely going to be crippled by the train in parts. The X9 on the other hand has potentially to grow with the massive new housing developments popping up at the West side of Cramlington.