Thursday 13th June 2024
Another interesting new bus service I took a look at on my travels last week is Arriva North East’s AIRLINK Northumberland branded route 777 providing an hourly direct link between Morpeth, Ponteland and Newcastle Airport before continuing to the Kingston Park shopping centre on the outskirts of Newcastle.
It was introduced on 25th January with funding from the Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) originally drawn up by Northumberland County Council (now part of the North East Combined Authority area)….
(Update: as per comment below, the BSIP “was a joint effort covering Northumberland, Tyne & Wear and County Durham, under the title of the North East Bus Service Improvement Plan (and received the largest allocation of any BSIP, at £163.5m))”.
Obviously Newcastle Airport has welcomed the service highlighting its sustainability credentials on cove panels inside the bus – for example, on a really sunny day all the Airport’s electricity comes from its own solar farm.
The route’s introduction saw the usual encouraging words from the leader of the Council, the chief sustainability and communications officer at the Airport and Arriva North East’s Commercial Director …. “new links for work, education, shopping and leisure purposes …. create more employment opportunities for the region’s workforce …. allowing for even more sustainable commuting options, particularly for employees …. proud to connect communities .. in a way that’s safe, reliable and sustainable.”
Two buses** provide the seven-days-a-week hourly service leaving Morpeth between 06:15 and 18:45 with an early morning extra on Mondays to Saturdays at 04:15 and two evening departures every day at 20:45 and 22:45.
(Update – see first comment below about the route interworking with the X16.)
I caught the third journey of the day from Kingston Park at 08:11 last Wednesday. It arrived from its previous journey on time at 08:00 with no-one on board. We left on time with two adults and two school children along with myself taking advantage of the £2 maximum fare which applies on the route.
It’s a 12 minute run to Newcastle Airport but no passengers were waiting at the bus stop outside the terminal building. Ponteland was reached seven minutes later where the two school children alighted at one stop as did one of the two adults at the next.
It’s then a 23 minute run along an unclassified rural road over to Morpeth.
Nice Northumberland countryside but no potential for passengers.
The bus was an ex Sapphire VDL SB200 Wright Pulsar which had three pin/usb sockets fitted although sadly they didn’t work. The branding includes the dreaded contravision but fortunately I wasn’t disturbed by it from the first nearside raised seat.
Over five months after introduction I was surprised numbers traveling were so few but then I wondered who would want to travel at 08:11 from Kingston Park to the airport when there’s the frequent Metro service providing the same facility and it’s not really the time to be heading to Ponteland (unless you’re going to school or work) or a day out in Morpeth. Perhaps the previous southbound journey had lots of passengers from Morpeth who got off at the airport?
Or perhaps not. We passed the second bus on the route – in standard Arriva livery – with just two on board.
Councillor Glen Sanderson leader of the Council observed “research carried out by us found that it’s currently very difficult to travel between many of these places by public transport, so we’re confident the service will be popular”.
Sadly just because a journey is difficult doesn’t mean popularity will follow the provision of the means to travel. There’s got to be a consistent demand. I doubt Morpeth can generate enough to justify an hourly service and, of course, any frequency less than that is useless anyway, especailly to and from airports.
That probably explains why such a service has not previously existed. Still, let’s not decry an attempt to meet a new market as that was one of the objectives of BSIP funding.
Roger French
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BusAndTrainUser 
Roger
it actually takes 3 buses to operate it as it interworks with the X16 (Morpeth to Newcastle), so the Airlink branded bus appears at Haymarket Bus Station every 3 hours.
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Interesting. Many thanks for that.
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I wonder if projecting the route back to Blyth via Ashington might drum up more patronage from potential airport workers, in an area that is deprived where connectivity to employment has always been a concern.
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we used to have a bus to take us to airport and Kingston park now Seaton burn wide-open and hazelrigg are missed out on getting to airport it’s a taxi or travel to regent centre to get metro to Kingston park and airport why are we always missed out like everything else
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Airport routes always seem to be very hit and miss patronage wise and I suppose it takes time for people to realize they operate and most importantly see they are reliable.
I know with First in Colchester the airport bus which takes in lots of communities on its journey but effectively replaced a non airport route, give it priority over any other route with drivers and if a bus breaks down it is replaced even if another service has to be reduced.
Matarredonda
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A small correction – the original BSIP was a joint effort covering Northumberland, Tyne & Wear and County Durham, under the title of the North East Bus Service Improvement Plan (and received the largest allocation of any BSIP, at £163.5m).
KCC
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Many thanks KCC – have added an update based on your comment.
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What a completely useless route! Exactly the sort that makes me worry about franchising.
As noted above the real catchment area should be Ashington, Blyth, Cramlington and then across via Dinnington to the Airport. The extension to Kingston Park is pointless. Travellers from Morpeth are more likely to take a train to Newcastle Central and then the Metro.
Richard Warwick
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Great a bus to Morpeth.
How about getting public transport after 11pm and before 6am between the airport and central Newcastle (or even beyond).
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There’s a 787 service between Newcastle and the airport at 2am to 5am
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I suspect most people going to an airport don’t think of the bus as an option – too much risk of it being late or not turning up at all. Though when I go to Heathrow Bus Station I’m always surprised at the range of buses it has to/from all sorts of places. Graham L.
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Fair play to NCC for using BSIP funds, but this and the X74 Newcastle/Jedburgh service are both a complete waste of time. Nice journey though
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Unfortunately the X74 is the former 808 extended back to start at Jedburgh to replace the 131. The new times are not convenient for Scottish Borders residents spending the day in Newcastle for shopping who in the past often comprised more than 50% of the passengers travelling.
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more tax payers money on a service running empty,it’ll last until the funding is pulled.as in previous comments who wants to wait in the cold and rain for a smelly rattling bus to turn up when you can share a taxi fare for a quicker journey in comfort in private.
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Bit late to the party but I speak from experience. I too sampled this new route – opposite direction, late afternoon. Again, a couple of schoolkids heading from Morpeth, plus me and another bloke.
Quite frankly, the catchment area of affluent Morpeth isn’t large enough for this ever to be sustainable. The return of the X16 (which I think has benefitted from some BSIP cash) resolves a historical and poorly executed mistake from Arriva and IS to be welcomed but this is a cash drain.
As for the sensible comments about the service capitalising on the larger settlements of Blyth and Cramlington… Indeed, that would be laudable but I recall the 101 service that did just that. Introduced with two brand new MPDs in the then new Arriva livery (so dates to c.1999), it was another brave idea but never had the take up.
BW2
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I wonder if targeting airport workers would be more sensible when planning airport bus services. Services with branding often seem mainly to focus on airline passengers with names like “Skylink” etc. In contrast Gatwick – Crawley Fastway does seem to focus on airport workers, and is very busy.
Peter Brown
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Yeah a lot of the Heathrow investment has been targeted at workers. Hence some if the very easy journeys which are geared to the start of shifts. Besides reducing emissions, it also frees up space otherwise used for employees parking.
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what about those that live in the north west of Co Durham? Next to impossible to get to either local airport except by car, then you have to pay for drop off.
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Looking at the map I’m kind of surprised it’s struggling. Some useful links and 7 days a week. But it has only been going since the end of January. Car culture must be so embedded in these areas that it will be hard to shift. Plus if it’s listed as an “experiment” people won’t make employment or residence decisions based on it because it could disappear any minute. Contravision should be outlawed.
MikeC
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