(Yesterday, 10:23 am)L469 YVK wrote Excluding any of the legacy Stagecooach / Busways' routes (i.e 39/40, 62/63) - Arriva's 308 was likely the second most profifable behind GNE's 21 in the North East before covid.
If you look at Arriva Northumbria, their likely most profitable routes (or sections for longer journeys) are:
- 306/308
- X10/X11
- X21/X22
- 43/44/45
- X14/X15/X16/X18 - Ncl > Morpeth
- X15/X18 - Ncl > Alnwick
Oh I don't know on the 308, you know.
I have a feeling there might be some hidden ones in there which are less obvious. These ones in particular:
2: Red Hall to Cockerton
8: Middlesbrough to Netherfields
15: North Tees Hospital to Ingleby Barwick
64: Arnison to Sherburn
They're all so short in length or have the major destination mid route so you effectively have 2 lots of passengers ie. the 64 has an Arnison to Durham load, then it picks a whole new load up from Durham to Sherburn.
They might not have the most people on the bus, but they're doing more trips in an hour. The 15 on paper has 3 different core bits (Hospital to Stockton / Stockton to Thornaby and Thornaby to Ingleby Barwick) and Stockton and Thornaby are both busy places.
The GNE 56 is another one, as there won't be many people going end to end but they're busy at both ends so people are very likely swapping somewhere. The 308 on the other hand from Newcastle to North Tyneside Hospital isn't really picking anyone up.