(11 Nov 2023, 8:48 pm)Metroline1511 wrote Arriva may not have reached Sunderland for some time.  However, I did catch a bus to Sunderland from Darlington in 1998, I think route 21 or X21.

As an aside, Arriva do reach Sunderland through Grand Central Trains.  They also reached Sunderland when they ran the Metro.

Think it would've been the 213 back then, became the 21 in 2008 as part of the overhaul of services in the Peterlee area whilst the 214 to Middlesbrough became the 21A (Sunderland - Peterlee leg became 31/31A to avoid the use of Tachos at some later stage). It was curtailed in Peterlee in either 2011/12 but was extended to Sunderland again as the X21 in autumn 2014 before becoming the X21 for the whole route shortly after. It stopped serving Sunderland again in October 2019.