(29 Aug 2025, 6:47 pm)LVK 404L wrote I agree that it needs.to extend past Sunderland. remember when it was first introduced in  97/98, the X20 was Durham - Sunderland - Shields all limited stop and inter worked at Durham with X50 Durham - Washington - Shields.

Those passengers are still out there and could be beneficial to start again at the beginning.

Yeah that's my thoughts aswell. Obviously finding where the flows is key but there's enough to the North of the water where people might want to be, least then it's giving people direct links to places they might want to be. 

I know the 9 doesn't go to many places where people probably want to be but that's the route I'd look at, you'd even get the bonus of reducing the PVR down by one so it's actually a win cost wise aswell so why not try it, it'd still have 9 minutes layover time each end aswell which is more than reasonable with a 81 minute running time end to end. It's arguably better than the 9 sitting around for 25 minutes doing nothing. Efficiencies and all that which people bang on about.

Also side note, looks like the X20 is interworking with the 65 now instead of the 20, just noticed it's flipping stands between D/E which is the 65 stand with a fantastic 2 minute layover at Seaham so I'm sure that'll be keeping on time.