(16 Jun 2023, 11:44 pm)peter wrote 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 When the 84/85 were withdrawn, the 6 and 6A were introduced half hourly to Cockfield and half hourly to Ramshaw, until the Ramshaw extension was binned when the 6 went every 12 minutes and replaced with the 86 which itself was merged into the 50 and extended to Evenwood then eventually withdrawn altogether.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.
I think every hour to cockfield would be fine, there's not many people getting off, but same for west Auckland, it would be better for the 85 to be increased in frequency but that's hard as it's lumped in with the 84 and 95/96. It seems like most the demand is for tindale but that place was definitely not designed to be served by buses and i doubt there's even gonna be a bus stop in the new development they're making.