(03 May 2023, 11:02 am)Storx wrote It's complete absurd though. The whole North East should be one transport area not two. There's not a sudden change travelling from Newton Aycliffe to Darlington it's all one community pretty much.

The political boundaries are a complete mess especially when it comes to places like Bishop Auckland and Newton Aycliffe which are massively connected to Darlington with 2 trains and at least 6 buses an hour.

Now those corridors will be ignored as they're both 'out of zone'. It's questionable how connected Darlington is with the rest of Teesside aswell, there's more buses and trains to Durham than there is to Middlesbrough for example.

It's stupid that I can could get a cheap fare all the way to Newcastle on the X21, but the much shorter journey to Darlington, because it's out of the zone, is going to cost considerably more.

What about those areas like Newton Aycliffe where some parts are in County Durham and the others in Darlington. When we had the COVID restrictions, half was locked down while the other was open!