(18 Mar 2015, 6:47 pm)leestransportphotos wrote I was on it the other day at about 10:30 between Wrekenton and S'land, I was the only person on all the way to Concord
I've been on once all the way to Wrekenton (from Sunderland) - and I would say only around half a dozen were on until around Southwick, Nissan, etc.
(18 Mar 2015, 6:49 pm)Adam wrote Since the changes, I've seen many of the evening rush-hour services out of Newcastle fully-laden, sometimes with standees.
Was often standees on the service when I'd used it as a quick shuttle to Gateshead after hopping off the X25 in the past. Tends to fill up on Old Durham Road at certain times, no matter which way you slice it.
Often when on the X1 heading to Newcastle around that time on a Saturday morning, the bus tends to be half-full by Houghton-le-Spring, a few get on along the stretch to Washington, then after Washington it's often standees, because every seat is taken.
Whereas, due to the old 10 minute frequency, it seemed with the inevitable delays that occurred - it was rather hit and miss (quite literally). One 56 service would pick up, and another would be following behind a couple of minutes later, but there wouldn't really have been enough filling up at bus stops to give it good passenger numbers on those occasions. I suppose when I did that journey all the way to Wrekenton from Sunderland that I mentioned above, I was one of the lucky ones in the respect that mine didn't become a First TransPennine train (reference to how crowded they get).