(23 Aug 2014, 8:24 am)cbma06 wrote I went out the other week with the family, got a family day ticket, got on the 21 from Peterlee to Darlington, I was so bored sitting on the Solo for an hour and a half, im sure the 21 is longer from Peterlee to Darlington than the old 213?, it was a good job that when the 21 reached the 7 route to Darlington it was behind the 7 otherwise the solo would of been packed. The 7's that I saw were pretty packed with standees, I always thought that the 7 was double deckers, did their change them when the service went to every 15 minutes?. Their could do with the 7 as double deckers again, their could of extended 2 of the 7's from Durham to Sunderland and give GNE run of their money via Rainton Bridge and Doxford International to Sunderland.
While I eventually arrived into Darlington, their changed the layout in Darlington (Is their any places in Darlington or Bishop Auckland to get timetables from?). After Darlington I decided to go to Bishop Auckland, I jumped on the X1 and throughout the trip to Bishop, their was only about 8 passengers in total and this was just after dinnertime, is the X1 still profitable since OK1 left the scene?, From Bishop jumped on the 6 to Durham then onto 24 then 22. So I was on one solo and the rest of the day was pulsars.
When the streetlites arrive for service 23 will their be branded for the service, as I can see these streetlites being on other services in durham after a few weeks after been arrived, their should brand some of the pulsars and the streetlites in a dedicated brand ie (East Durham Links) or some other similar brand.
Im surprised that Arriva hasn't sorted out the issue of driver changovers for service 23 at Sunderland Interchange, having seen plenty of times that service 23 and service 24 leaving the interchange the same time as the relief driver turned up late coming from Durham in a van etc... Their could of extended a hourly service 23 from Sunderland to Durham via Doxford International and Rainton Bridge, this would probably save passengers money having to buy a Arriva weekly or monthly ticket and then having to purchase the GNE tickets for onward travel to Rainton and Doxford. and also save fuel driving the vans etc... to Sunderland for the changeover.
The 7 became single decker operated when it ran every 15 minutes as the 713/723 although double deckers still appeared until August 2011 when double deckers were banned from the 7/7A when the 7A was extended to Brasside.
The X1 is very busy especially as the 1 no longer runs to Crook anymore.
You get timetables from the Dolphin Centre in Darlington and I think the library has some too.
Can't remember how long the 213 used to take but I remember it used to go via Woodham.