(11 Jul 2020, 9:43 am)tyresmoke From what I've heard fleet standardisation seems to be the name of the game. Probably best for a new thread though. Good to see name badges being added to personalise what is an upgraded set of interurban services. We were meant to get similar at Arriva when Sapphire started but it didn't last long.

(11 Jul 2020, 1:51 pm)col87 Not good for people who might struggle with step entrance otherwise an interesting solution. If demand improves like some posters have mentioned I wonder if a 20 minute service might happen in future during peak times.

(11 Jul 2020, 2:50 pm)mb134 Same folk that complain about step entrance manage just fine with tour coaches and the like... 

Post-Covid I don't see demand on the X9/X10 reaching even what it was at the beginning of the year for a good while - given both the improving train links and the reduction in both commuters and leisure travellers. From what I remember these can still seat around 60, I can't imagine many trips need much more than that.

(11 Jul 2020, 4:21 pm)scanialover Dan had the right idea there ? Let's get the coaches here and into service before we start looking at and inventing problems. End of the day this is a public service and the majority of users won't be bothered what colour it is, how many seats it has etc etc. What they want is a reliable, comfortable and ideally inexpensive service.

(11 Jul 2020, 3:47 pm)Andreos1 Interesting you mention the train. I think storx did the other day and I shared my thoughts/opinions on the train vs X9/10 vs Eldon Square.
We got the train up the coast today. I'd say more than usual boarded at Stockton and Billingham. When we got to Horden, I was genuinely amazed at the numbers on both platforms. 
Some got off at Seaham but the majority remained until Newcastle.

There were a mixture of families and groups. 

Myself and MrsC got change from £20 for a 2 leg return (appreciate there's the railcard weve already bought). We wouldn't have done with two Explorer tickets. 

One of the sets was a refurbished 158, the other was a DDA compliant 156.
Quicker journey than an ANE bus to Boro and then changing to the X9/10. Cheaper too.
Would a coach be enough to change our travel arrangements? Not sure it would. 
Would the other groups and families change their mode of transport? Genuinely don't know, but it would be interesting to see what the impact will br once the train frequency kicks in - or will the introduction of the coaches have an impact on the train?

Oxford said that the increase in train services via Bicester in to Marylebone had an impact on the X90.

(11 Jul 2020, 7:41 pm)tyresmoke I'd worry about the service not being able to be accommodated in Eldon Square and having to wait out on the street somewhere. Fine in the summer but when it comes to winter evenings, knowing how many people are at the stand 15-20 mins before departure at Eldon Square now (I know I've done it myself!) I wonder how many of these would be put off by not being in a nice warm(ish) bus station? Admittedly Haymarket isn't any good and that doesn't seem a put off to commuters there, albeit it's under cover while not being indoors.

(11 Jul 2020, 8:14 pm)scanialover This takes me back to my only experience with Megabus ? Cheap it might be but reliable ?? My journey down (M'bro - Leeds) was married by a late running coach and standing on a street corner in Leeds at 6pm for the departure home; no notification of whether the coach was running or not, didn't impress, didn't impress that much I went over to Dyer Street and paid the extra to travel back with National Express. Can see this being a problem, not only at Eldon Square. Again the train wins.

(11 Jul 2020, 9:24 pm)Wybus Seems a good way to solve two problems at once, GNE reducing their expenditure this year and Oxford finding a use for the surplus Coaches. It is basically a win win, many here have wanted coaches on the X9/X10 for years.

Where it stops in Newcastle will be interesting, if it isn’t serving Eldon Square then is there any point in going all the way up there, so maybe they will use the Market Street sort of area instead. I’m not sure they’d be able to make the left turn into Bigg Market though.

As others have said, that bottom end of Newcastle is missing a bus station, it’s a shame they couldn’t have incorporated one into the development work that is currently going on. Services like the 56 could have used it along with others not having to make the trek up to Eldon Square

(11 Jul 2020, 7:41 pm)tyresmoke I'd worry about the service not being able to be accommodated in Eldon Square and having to wait out on the street somewhere. Fine in the summer but when it comes to winter evenings, knowing how many people are at the stand 15-20 mins before departure at Eldon Square now (I know I've done it myself!) I wonder how many of these would be put off by not being in a nice warm(ish) bus station? Admittedly Haymarket isn't any good and that doesn't seem a put off to commuters there, albeit it's under cover while not being indoors.

(11 Jul 2020, 9:47 pm)streetdeckfan I mean, if we take what Dan said at face value 'The removal of the X9/X10 services from Eldon Square Bus Station will be the only change to the route', then the new starting point has to be somewhere already along the route.
It needs to be somewhere that is easily accessible from Eldon Square, as they'll want easy connections to other services. I guess they'd also want somewhere that's covered as they wouldn't want passengers of a 'premium' service standing out in the rain. It needs to be somewhere big enough to stop a coach without causing too much of an obstruction. I don't really know central Newcastle that well, is there anywhere that would fit all that?

(11 Jul 2020, 10:06 pm)Storx Why is there always an obsession on this forum that if a bus goes from say Blyth to Newcastle then every person can just use a different bus from Blyth to Newcastle and it's all fine. It's all good comparing the X9/X10 and X12 but they're not the same bus route at all apart from 1 stop at each end.

(11 Jul 2020, 10:06 pm)Storx Why is there always an obsession on this forum that if a bus goes from say Blyth to Newcastle then every person can just use a different bus from Blyth to Newcastle and it's all fine. It's all good comparing the X9/X10 and X12 but they're not the same bus route at all apart from 1 stop at each end.

(11 Jul 2020, 10:14 pm)streetdeckfan That was exactly the point, for people from Newcastle, the X12 is a service to Durham that happens to carry on to Middlesbrough, and for people from Middlesbrough, it's a service to Durham that happens to continue on to Newcastle.

The issue is if someone just turns up at Eldon Square looking for a bus to Middlesbrough (however unlikely that is), they're going to look at the board and see the X12 as the only option. The great thing about Nexus timetables is they actually tell you roughly how long the journey is, so a passenger may just look at the timetable and see it takes a bloody age to get there and think "Sod it, I'm getting the train" rather than looking for the X9/X10

(11 Jul 2020, 10:24 pm)mb134 Absolutely this. It's unlikely (though I perhaps should have made that clearer), but infrequent bus users often simply look for where they want to go, see whichever bus is first then get on that. 

Over the years, the amount of times I've seen people catch an X21/2 to Ashington over the X20 because the X21/2 leaves 2-3 minutes earlier is too many to count. I've steered them the right way if I've noticed in time (if I've overhead their conversation!), but all too often I'd get off the X20 then 10 minutes later they'll get off the X21/2. (Note that this was just as frequent in pre-Sapphire days where there generally was no internal spec difference either)