(09 Aug 2025, 5:06 pm)Storx wrote The obvious one would be the X22, and do it's Saturday timetable from a selfish point of view so it sorts out the mess which is the 57/57A recently and do the Saturday interworking pattern which helps it out massively, since it gets a 11 minute layover at Ashington.

There's no real reason why the X21 and X22 need to be the same frequency really as they're effectively two different bus routes anyway bar a select few bus stops between Seaton Burn and Nelson Ind. Estate and they no longer interwork now either.

Why would that be the obvious one? 

Again, as someone who sees these routes every day, at the start of the PM peak where there are 15 minute gaps between X21/22s they leave with a standing load if allocated a saloon. The 16:15 X22, which is a saloon daily because the commercial genius decided to put the 777 midnight on that board, leaves Haymarket every day with standees - even during the last couple of weeks during school holidays the loads have not dropped, if anything they're heavier. It's not as if I'm just seeing them double loaded either, I've checked each time I've seen this board and the prior X21/22 had both ran on each occasion (10+ at this point). 

You say that there are only a few stops shared, this not only isn't the case but also totally misses the point of how close the routes are. From Newcastle, Gosforth, and Regent Centre, passengers for much of Bedlington and Stakeford will use the services interchangeably. That's added to those from and for Cramlington Arcot Manor, Cramlington Industrial Estate, and Ashington.

The obvious option is to hire some competent engineering staff so you can actually meet PVR.