Made a couple of observations over Friday and Saturday, and here are somethings I noticed.

Firstly, the X26/X27. I'm not sure if these services actually deserve a upgrade to Scania Omnciities, never mind ''MAX''. The three X26/X27's I saw, only justified a Solo. The first X27 came in with half a bus, and left with three passengers, the next X26 came into Darlington full, but with no standees, left with one passenger, and then the next X26 came in with about a quarter of the bus, and left with about seven/eight passengers. Not sure if it's really worth upgrading this service? Now, the 21/21A. I think these services are in need of a upgrade, and the Scania Omnicities planned to go on the X26/X27 could probably be more worthwhile on the 21/21A's. From what I saw, loadings on both services were decent. The Prestige on the 21A arrived into Peterlee with it's full seating capacity, and left about half full, and the 21 was packed with standees. These services should be upgraded to ''MAX'' in my opinion, albeit not being express routes. I didn't actually think these routes were busy at all until yesterday. So I reckon a swap would be good, Solos on the X26/X27, Omnicities on the 21/21A.

I do think the 23 could justify Streetlites on the Hartlepool-Peterlee route, but beyond that it's up and down. Some were full, some were empty. For example, a Solo left Peterlee to Sunderland with around eight or nine passengers, but then the Pulsar on the next run left almost full! I don't know if the Streetlites would increase profit and passenger numbers on the service, but I hope it would!

Finally, If Arriva want to encourage more passengers onto their Northumberland Coast network, they are going to have to sort themselves out before they get the upgrade. The X18 was 13 minutes late leaving Haymarket yesterday, and people don't think about the effect this has on the X14. If those services are running late, the X14 will carry practically no passengers if a X15 or X18 is running in front. 13 minutes late is a improvement from 45 minutes late last week, but still. First step would be to increase layover times at Berwick, and make ammendments to the timetables. People won't rely on a service that runs late all the time, hence decreasing usage of those services.

All in all, I think Arriva have made some good decisions, but one or two bad ones too, especially with the X26/X27. I'm glad to see the X66 getting ''MAX'', and I'd like to see the 1/X1 follow suit. I was really impressed with the amount of people using the X1 yesterday. Maybe the 5/5A could get ''MAX'', and then that's all that could be upgraded really.

I'd like to say the same about the ''Quorum Express'' services too, but sadly with the amount of timetable ammendments Arriva have made, and route changes, not many people use the service from Newcastle-Balilol/Qourum now, and use Stagecoach X63. Maybe Arriva could win back passengers if they upgraded the service, and keep a simple timetable. as I think others have seen a fall in passenger numbers too.