(13 Jul 2026, 12:13 pm)SN69 ZRC wrote Take it from me, in my whole 23 years of being alive, I've lived in 3 different estates which have all been along the 18 route. The 18 has been my longest running local service to date, no matter where I've lived. Passenger numbers on the 18 can be extremely unpredictable.

This what annoys me about the 18, people see a few empty 18's and assume that is what it's always like, when in fact it's not at all always empty, even outside of school hours. The 18s used to be quite busy on a Sunday when Stagecoach had it. There would be trips where it would l to stop at every single stop along the way. Early morning trips to Quorum get quite busy too before school kids have even left home. Also back when Stagecoach were suffering cancellations or even lateness, if the last 12 from Two Ball Lonnen to Walker is late and the 18 comes first, all the 12 passengers will just jump on the 18, and there's been times where it's quite a lot of them. The very last 18 trip to Walker get's a whole bunch of pensioners coming home from the pub who usually fills the bottom deck. 

Single deckers are only temporarily allocated to the 18s due to a "low hanging tree", which I will bring into question myself as they've still got at least one double decker on the 18 during the weekday. Is that one double decker just magically invincible from the low trees? And why is it also only the double decker that stays on the late board?

And Northstar hasn't operated "two vans for a few days." They've only ever operated two van's on Sunday, and one van on Saturday alongside a long single decker and a decker. Excluding the time a few weeks back when a decker broke down during evening runs and 11 replaced it at Byker.

While I actually don't mind single deckers on the 18 on weekends, breadvan's seem abit over the top (or even under the top if you will). Very restricted seating arrangement for the elderly and the less able, which I would argue is 50% of the 18's clientele.