The Arriva/Stagecoach 685 had a 27 minute layover in Newcastle and I reckoned that I could make it into the Eldon Centre and back well within that time.
The journey started badly as the bus was 15 minutes late departing Corbridge and we got even later en-route, but I assumed that the driver would need to take a break and that I could make it if I ran, especially as the next 685 from Newcastle would be an hour later.
Of course I missed the return bus, but as I scanned the departure boards I spotted 'Alston' and I reasoned that any bus to Alston would be passing through Corbridge. It was, of course, the daily Wright's bus.
We left Newcastle just before 5pm, and, as there were only two passengers (and the other one got off at Throckley) I got chatting to the (mature) driver.
I asked him how long his layover was and he told me that he arrived in Newcastle before 9am and left before 5pm.
I queried the timing and why there were almost no passengers (I had been told that the 685 that I had missed had left 'full' - leaving passengers behind) and he explained that the service was arranged to get people from Alston to Newcastle in time for 9 o'clock, but, because it left before 5pm the numbers had dwindled and the last regular passenger had bought a scooter with a grant from the County Council so that he could get back from whatever he was doing as the bus left too soon.
Ani fule kno that!
Whoever decided that the bus should leave before 5pm surely determined that the service was doomed . . .
With a half-hour later return departure that service would probably be alive and flourishing with regular passengers.
And an 8 hour layover?
