(10 Aug 2014, 7:10 am)JoshP wrote I know what you mean, every day me and many others have to put up with this madness! Stop E needs to be put to use outside Wilkinsons to free up some space and services need to be re jingled (I.e the 2, 3 & 19 only share stand I). Sapphire 7 could exclusively use stand E freeing loads of space instantly!

(10 Aug 2014, 7:16 am)Jimmi wrote I would like to see some services using stand E again, but having the 7 on a different stand to the 5/5A, 8 and 21 would be silly. The same would apply to moving the 1, 1b and X1 from the stand with the other services to Cockerton although the 2 runs about every 10 minutes though.

(11 Aug 2014, 4:36 pm)JoshP wrote Maybe they could have a policy of the town services using stands A-E only and out of town services using L-N?

I know it splits the 2 and 3 from the 1 but most other groups stick together (north road group) etc...

(12 Aug 2014, 9:46 pm)busman101 wrote Needs a Bus Station man !

(26 Aug 2014, 8:22 pm)JoshP wrote Because the 2 and 11 intermixing does not work in the slightest, today at around 4pm, three number 11's and two number 2's battled for stands A & B, as well as other services, causing such a backlog of buses on Northgate roundabout, it was chaos!

(26 Aug 2014, 8:28 pm)Jimmi wrote I knew this would be the case, I've seen times where there has been two service 2's mid afternoon too, this is why when it was changed from the 25 they were split into two routes because of poor time keeping because of the traffic on Yarm Road and Woodland Road.

The other week I saw three service 10's arrive at the same time on Northgate too.

(05 Sep 2014, 1:11 pm)Jimmi wrote Service 7 ended up blocking the roundabout once again as some stupid prat parked their crappy Peugeot in the middle of stand "A"

Also a taxi stopped outside the Post Office opposite the 13A/13B stand while the other person in the car went to the cash machine and of course there was a 13A on the stand at the time which meant nothing could get through so that ended up causing a pile of traffic on Northgate.

Also something needs to be done about cars stopping on Prebend Row as at times buses struggle to get round, when something parks right on the corner the bus has no chance of getting round and I once had to sit on service 5 for 5 minutes outside the hotel because we couldn't get round the corner because someone was parked badly on the corner.

Something needs to be done about this too as it results in buses being delayed and people having to make dodgy moves and having cars blocking the town centre certainly makes the town look good and make me go on a regular basis. Also just because you have your hazards on doesn't make it okay to just stop anywhere especially in bus stops.

(05 Sep 2014, 8:35 pm)tyresmoke wrote Not in Darlington but this is the sort of stuff we have to put up with...

(05 Sep 2014, 9:27 pm)aureolin wrote Typical that it's a pratt in a Range Rover too!

(05 Sep 2014, 9:52 pm)tyresmoke wrote Yeah he came running back when he saw me taking a photo, amusingly.

(05 Sep 2014, 9:56 pm)aureolin wrote I don't know why operators don't start releasing some of their driver view CCTV footage onto YouTube or something. It'd be a right insight to see what drivers have to put up with daily.

(06 Feb 2015, 10:16 am)ross13 wrote To Me Services 1/1b/x1 2 & 3 should be moved from stand J on tubwell row and moved to stand F outside Burger King at least there there is abit more mouverable room for the big buses as for northgate stand A does not suit the 2/3 they should be moved to stand C and 9/10 back to Stand A

(06 Feb 2015, 11:59 am)Jimmi wrote That would probably be better, although Northgate could do with less buses all together as there is too many trying to pick up and drop off passengers at one time.

An idea I've thought of which would probably improve things but I don't think people would like it, is to move the Aycliffe services back to stand E and remove stand I with services using stand I would move to stand H with stand I removed it would create more space. The problem with stand E is it's location as it isn't the best looking place to wait for a bus which I believe was the reason they were moved from there.

I think it would also be better if services using stand M pulled right to the top of the stand as you often have 3 buses trying to access that stand at once and the third bus is practically on the mini roundabout at times. The 16/16A often has to pull in on an angle to get anywhere close to the stand.

(09 Sep 2014, 11:59 am)Andreos1 wrote Unless a transport authority/pte decides to build a bus station, I can't see there being much change.

Financially, it will cost a fortune to build and take an age to recoup that initial outlay.

On Tyneside/Wearside - you get the likes of Nexus who use private/public finance to construct a bus station.
The initial outlay, is returned by the way of rent by small businesses sited within the bus station and from the operators paying landing/access fees.
The PTE had the foresight to build the interchanges back in the 70's/80's to complement the integrated system.
Operators would be silly to move services away from these areas - based on the simple basis, that they would loose passengers.

On North Road, you have the site of what was an operator owned/constructed site.
Ditto Park Lane and others too. Not sure about Peterlee, but in all likelihood it was.

In Darlington, which operators would pay the council to use the bus station (without any interchange facilities) when they can use the streets for nowt?
There would possibly be a similar situation to the one in Hartlepool.

Back in the day, when there was competition, an operator would build their own bus station/terminus, very much like the train companies did.
It demonstrated grandeur and could attract passengers from a rival operation.

There isn't anything like that since de-reg.

As for the siting of stops; whilst problems may be happening on a daily basis, there will be all sorts of things to take into account, such as the destinations of the buses I.e routes in, out and across town, locations needing to be near shops/busy areas and the existing road/building infrastructure - before any re-siting can even happen.

(11 Feb 2015, 12:19 am)JoshP wrote Tubwell Row will soon be a little clear as I understand some services will be moving to a new stand or two outside the town hall. Stand M shouldn't exist much longer and the Barnard Castle, Hurworth and Richmond busses will move there as well as the 16/16A.

That won't help the issues on stands H-J or Northgate though...

(11 Feb 2015, 12:19 am)JoshP wrote Tubwell Row will soon be a little clear as I understand some services will be moving to a new stand or two outside the town hall. Stand M shouldn't exist much longer and the Barnard Castle, Hurworth and Richmond busses will move there as well as the 16/16A.



That won't help the issues on stands H-J or Northgate though...