(09 Jan 2015, 6:35 pm)aureolin wrote It's likely that GNE would face the same issues as Arriva do on the Durham Road corridor. There are no connecting services, and there isn't a Network One equivalent for Northumberland. Besides that, I can't see the point of replicating an existing route like for like, when surely the key is to come up with something better than what they've got now?

Exactly - you can't do better than a combined 10 minutely Ashington-Newcastle service. Plus, even if you did put a half hourly service along those lines via North Seaton, people are still going to use the hourly X20 due to its quicker journey times even if it isn't Sapphire or MAX (at present).