(10 Aug 2013, 4:29 pm)tyresmoke wrote Yes at peak times the X9/X10 is massively profitable, but it is very much used heavily from Teesside towards Tyneside and they need to try and grow the market in the opposite direction! I used the 0633 from Stockton the other day and leaving Norton there was around 20-30 people on it which I was quite impressed with. I caught the 1600 home from Newcastle and there was no spare seats after Gateshead.... The morning northbound journeys and afternoon southbound journeys are full. It is pretty outstanding considering until a few years ago it was just the hourly X10, the X9 has grown from nowhere but taken some of the pressure off the X10 which regularly used to arrive with standing passengers into Newcastle.
I'd be curious to know how the early journeys that they have to run on the X9/X10 in order to get to Middlesbrough from the depot perform in terms of passenger numbers. For example, the 0510 X10 from Gateshead to Middlesbrough I can imagine running totally empty.