(31 Aug 2014, 7:53 pm)Kuyoyo wrote Without adding to the running cost - no. At least 2 of the Stockton workings start and finish down in the Teesside area. Then there's the cost of re-working the Sunday journeys which are geared to operation out of Stockton (and interwork with all of Stockton's Middlesbrough Sunday runs apart from the 5s of course).
I think you have hit the nail on the head here.
I bet that adding 4 dead journeys per day into the cost would be a significant chunk of profit cleared off for the sake of what? Running it all from Durham is logistically not an option I would guess.
I don't see Arriva reducing the X2 at any point in the future either. If it was going to happen, it would have already happened by now. I think that whilst it may not carry as many as the 21 or X21, it still provides a link between the Durham & Northumbria regions, that would otherwise be severed. I think on that basis, even if it made nothing, Arriva would keep it, to ensure value for money in their full north east tickets. Withdrawing it would reduce their value for money by 50% overnight.