(08 Sep 2013, 6:08 pm)aureolin wrote It was quite heavily used between Sunderland and The Galleries, as it essentially ran a mix of what the 2A/2C route is now - along Chester Road, down Barnwell, under the railway arch down to Fatfield bridge, and then the 2C route from there on. I remember using it to Winlaton once as I was seeing someone from up that way, but never again.
I don't think whoever invented the service would have expected anyone to travel from A to B, and the general consensus of the service would have no doubt to provide various links from various destinations - allowing passengers to have the ultimate freedom of choice.
Times were obviously different then so it's hard to compare it to a modern day equivalent. As we've already discussed, direct services aren't particularly common nowadays anyway - it's better (in the eyes of the operator) to have frequent services on multiple services and passengers have to change between these.