(03 Jan 2015, 6:50 pm)citaro5284 wrote Was this because of all the Christmas Shoppers out in force. What is the 5's like normally, say in Feb or March, also the schools are still off at the moment which will all count to smaller loadings.
Tends to be all year round - certainly like you say school loadings (and Middlesbrough College) provide a fair amount of passengers, indeed we have to run a dupe for Nunthorpe School on a morning (and on an evening too, from Monday!) as an example. The Christmas shoppers just made things worse where certain buses were leaving people behind, which is never great.
Certainly into Middlesbrough on a morning, and out again on an evening you will see heavy loadings, although the introduction of the X5's (direct from/to Skelton) in July has helped somewhat by providing extras. They can be busy throughout the day, everything out of Middlesbrough on an afternoon will have a full seated load, maybe a few standees but usually a few get off just 10-15 mins downroute so it's not too bad. Of course there is empty runs like all services where you are going contra-peak.