Sapphire brings a number of enhancements to service 7 between Darlington and Durham, via Newton Aycliffe and Ferryhill.
11 new VDL SB200 / Wright Pulsar 2 vehicles are due to be delivered in the next few weeks.

They'll have:
- "luxury" leather seats (believe these will be the Civic seats with headrests, as seen in the current Omnicities and the 05 reg MPD's)
- Free wi-fi
- Charging points (sockets)
- Next Stop Announcements (audio-visual)

From 27th October the route of service 7 will be changing very slightly to incorporate the DurhamGate development at Thinford, between Ferryhill and Durham, with slightly increased running time as a result.
An additional morning journey and afternoon return journey (giving 3 return journeys) will extend to/from Framwellgate Moor for New College Durham students following comments about overcrowding.
Further simplification of the route see's 0623 journey starting at Coxhoe re-formed to start at Ferryhill at 0650, with a new connecting journey on service 56 starting in Coxhoe at 0621 arriving in Ferryhill at 0642.