(29 Aug 2025, 5:47 pm)peter wrote Having a proper express service is a real Catch 22, because on the one hand people will say they don't want to switch from the car to the bus as it takes too long/stops everywhere/goes 'all round the houses' - but on the other hand if it's limited stop and doesn't stop near where you live, it's not much use to you. 

I'm based down in Liverpool now and just last year Arriva introduced a new limited stop express to Runcorn funded by the Combined Authority. When I see it in the AM peak heading into Liverpool and the PM peak heading out, it's very well loaded, presumably quite a few of them will be end-to-end commuters, as it's almost an hour faster than the next alternative. But whenever I've seen it outside of the peaks or on weekends - absolutely deserted, while the all stopping buses along the same corridor still carry healthy loads.

There's also the big problem that barely no-one lives in Durham City Centre, no-one lives in Sunderland City Centre and no-one lives in Houghton Centre so who's it exactly an express for?

imo it needs to go beyond Sunderland or Durham at either end and extend to another town giving them a link to Sunderland and/or Durham depending which end you pick.

Stuff like the X20 in Northumberland is a good example for that, if it only done Ashington to Newcastle, ignoring the train for now, I'd imagine it would be mostly dead aswell, but it gains it passengers giving people from the likes of Lynemouth etc a fast link to Newcastle. The GNE X21 is arguably another one, for similar reasons but towards Bishop instead. 

The 9 or 24 would be the obvious routes using existing routes since they head North of the water and would give a direct express Durham to Stadium of Light link which is quite poor currently without a long walk really without going back on thereself like the now 14 does.