(24 Feb 2014, 5:30 pm)aureolin wrote I don't think Arriva can really pull much else out of Durham - east or otherwise. Apart from the major corridors, the network is on the bones of its arse in my opinion.

It does kind of link in with what Andreos1 has said in the past. I agree and disagree with the point made, but if Arriva are withdrawing the local estate links and just sticking to the main roads (thereby cutting passengers off from their services), passenger numbers are going to fall.
Services 22, 23 and 24 may have been rather prosperous indeed at one point, but perhaps passenger numbers have fallen after these local estates have been cut out from their operation. I can't help but feel that since the X7's commencement, Arriva have tried to bring back passengers by new fare deals and the like...

Whether those new fare deals are working or not is a completely different story - let's not forget the tickets aimed at students were marketed a good few months later than they should have been, and seeing that passenger numbers still aren't excellent on services 23/24 (Sunderland - Peterlee more so) makes me think that it could have backfired and they're gaining even less revenue now than they previously did.

cbma06 lives in the Peterlee area and from his sightings, service 23 isn't a top performer.

Investment is the last crack at bringing back custom if you ask me, and of course the Solo cascades will help out with some of their withdrawals.