(16 Jun 2023, 2:38 pm)Countydurhambuses wrote Arriva had the 84/85 and 95/96 contracts back in like 2011, it would be very odd to see them take over the problem mainly being that they all run into eachother and are rural routes, the only depot which could do it is darlington and they've already scrapped most the solos and the e200s will be needed on more profitable runs. It's also unlikely they would extend the 6 to barnard castle there likely wouldn't be much through travel to durham and most would get off in west auckland and bishop which is already provided by 85
it seems like an odd choice to go to ramshaw, the 104 bus sits in bishop quite a bit during the day the only fixes which would work would be going to newfield hourly which there wouldn't be demand for or pretty unlikely if they got the 9 contract and the 104 was weardale drive to newfield.
Arriva didn't have the contracts for the 84/85 and 95/96 - they used to operated them commercially. The council stepped in to replace them with the Scarlet Band offering, originally just an 85A from Barnard Castle to Darlington via Cockfield until Scarlet Band restored the 85 through to Bishop Auckland commercially I believe. My suggestion, in line with the extension to Ramshaw to replace duplication with the 104, was for the council to fund the extension further from Cockfield through to Barnard Castle and Darlington. Given they're already going to be providing 2 journeys per day in each direction to Barnard Castle it doesn't seem that unreasonable. Tbh I doubt there's much through traffic from Cockfield to Durham either.
Agree the 104 is an odd one, an hourly service to Ramshaw is overkill, back in the day it used to be the 8/8A/8B each running to West Auckland then Barnard Castle, Ramshaw and Darlington - the Ramshaw service was merged with the 86 operating as a loop via Toft Hill with the 8 and 8B becoming the 84/85. When the 84/85 were withdrawn, the 6 and 6A were introduced half hourly to Cockfield and half hourly to Ramshaw, until the Ramshaw extension was binned when the 6 went every 12 minutes and replaced with the 86 which itself was merged into the 50 and extended to Evenwood then eventually withdrawn altogether. Also agree it would make sense to be merged with the 9.