(6 hours ago)PH - BQA wrote Yeah that’s what they were initially branded. If memory serves two of them frequently appeared on the X14 prior to them going to Durham, as the Scanias were increasingly unreliable.
For the weekday 57/57A deckers, often when I’ve seen them on there it’s been a board which starts around the same time as a 21/22 should be going out that’s allocated a single decker instead - the allocations have been consistently awful there for some time now. If that is their logic I don’t see how Whitley Bay is any more local than Newcastle to be honest, and at least if it breaks on the X21 there’ll be something along in 20 minutes versus an hour on the 57.
Plus, now there is direct competition for the X21/22 with the Northumberland Line, you would think they would be prioritising deckers above everything else for those services. They still get busy queues at Haymarket, but I wonder how long that will last when Bedlington Station re-opens and Arriva don’t change anything.