Right, I'll give my memories of routes and what the routes were allocated.

4/4A Bishop Auckland - Newton Aycliffe (Woodham)
Can't remember the whole of this route but it observed a rather strange route through Newton Aycliffe. This service got new Darts in 1998? and we're route branded although the branding later disappeared and later the service ended up becoming a mixed bag of everything and anything including: Darts, Prestige's, Optare Deltas, Optare Vectras and Leyland Lynx's. This service was replaced by the 5/5A in the Viva Durham changes in autumn 2006?

7/7A/713/722)723 Darlington - Durham - Newcastle (722/723 only)
Service operated as the 722/723 between Darlington and Newcastle for many years and was joint operated by Arriva North East and Go North East. At some point the 723 was split at Durham with Arriva operating the Darlington - Durham section and Go North East operating the 723 between Durham and Newcastle. As part of the Viva Durham changes the 713 was introduced to increase the amount of buses between Darlington and Durham from half hourly to every 15 minutes combined and it was also extended to Durham Arnison Centre. It was later renumbered as 7/7A. Changes in 2011 which saw the 7 cut to terminate at Framwellgate Moor and the 7A extended to Brasside, the low bridge at Brasside pretty much banished double deckers on this service for a while. In October 2012 the 7A was withdrawn and the 7 was incresed to every 15 minutes and was cut again to terminate at Durham Bus Station although two peak time journeys continued to Framwellgate Moor on a morning and two return journeys in the evening. This route has gotten much longer over the years and yet shorter at the same time!

8/8A/15/15B Darlington - Spennymoor
My first memories was when it was originally the 15/15B with the 15 terminating at Greenaways Estate in Spennymoor although this was binned when it was renumbered as the 8. The 15 was another service which got Darts in 1998 with route branding but again lost them and became a mixed bag of allocations with absolutely anything turning up although when it was the 15 I mainly remember the Optare Metroriders which I actually quite liked. In the Darlington shake up the 15 became the 8 and the end of the Metroriders with the step entrance ex Stagecoach Darlington Darts taking over as the regular allocation. In April 2011 the 8 was cut down to hourly and a 8A was introduced which ran from Darlington - Ferryhill (not serving Spennymoor) and would continue through from Ferryhill to Hartlepool as the 33 which lasted until October 2012 when Durham County Council retendered many of the contracts and the 8 basically became the 8A route so no longer did a tour of Newton Aycliffe and continued to Spennymoor via Ferryhill and Kirk Merrington as it does now.

13 Darlington - Newton Aycliffe - Bowburn - Durham
This basically followed much of the current 56 route between Durham Bus Station and Ferryhill and Bowburn Estate. I got this service once and never again, the time I got it a step entrance Dart was allocated. There was an evening and Sunday variation 13B which ran a slightly different route through Newton Aycliffe.

16 Newton Aycliffe - Darlington
This service had a few different routes at one it ran as a circular service through Newton Aycliffe. It used to run Newton Aycliffe - Mowden via School Aycliffe, Heighington (West Park was added later) then it would head past the Memorial Hospital to Darlington Town Centre then would head to Mowden. A few slight route changes occurred but it was completely revised in July 2008 where it no longer went even near the Memorial Hospital and now ran via Cockerton, Mowden and Hummersknott Avenue to Darlington Town Centre. Under Arriva operation this service was mostly Optare Metroriders until July 2008 when it became MPD operated. In May 2009 Scarlet Band took over operation of this service, to begin with it was loaned buses (can't remember what you called them but it's the ones GNE loaned when they took over the Quaylink services) MPD's often appeared to and one occasion a Mercedes Viaro turned up. The 55 reg Solos took over when Arriva took the Durham Park and Ride with a few older Solos appearing from January 2012 when Scarlet Band took on services in Teesdale. At the end of 2012 Darlington Borough Council withdrew the subsidy and the service only retained the Mowden - Darlington Town Centre section also serving North Road and Harrowgate Hill.

17A/17C Darlington - Aycliffe (Circulars)
Never actually rode this service as it didn't operate in my part of the town and also because it was operated by Green Bus. This was a circular service that via everywhere it seemed including Heighington and Aycliffe Village. Green Bus collapsed after not very long and Arriva briefly operated the services but swiftly withdrew them.

21/31/213 Darlington - Sunderland
213 ran from Darlington - Sunderland although it followed a longer route than the current 21/X21 but was timetabled to take roughly the same length of time. It went via Wheatley Hill and Woodham but Woodham was later swapped with Central Avenue when the 13 was withdrawn with service 723 running via Woodham in its place. In 2008 service changes saw it become the 21 then shortly afterwards it was split at Peterlee as the 31 between Peterlee and Sunderland. In October 2012 the 31 was withdrawn and the 21 was changed to run via Wingate instead of Wheatley Hill. The reliability in 213 days was horrendous, on one trip we ended up arriving in Sunderland really late after someone still drunk from the night before fell off the sideways seat on a Dart. Then on the journey home the bus was dumped just outside Peterlee Bus Station and we must have been left there at least half an hour possibly longer!

75/76/77 Horndale - Barnard Castle / Hurworth
Yes the 75/76 used to run to Newton Aycliffe! Both were hourly between Newton Aycliffe Horndale and Barnard Castle (combined half hourly). At some point though the 76 was replaced with the 77 to Hurworth and I think the 76 became Barnard Castle - Teesside Airport. It later switched back to the 75/76 to Newton Aycliffe. These services were curtailed at Darlington Town Centre as part of the Viva Durham changes.

91/92 Darlington - Bishop Auckland
Vague memories of this one as it didn't run round my part of the town. Another one I think that started with Darts and became a mix of different single deckers like the 4/4A.

116 Newton Aycliffe Town Service
Started as a commercial service after the 16 stopped serving Newton Aycliffe after the withdrawal of Darlington bus subsidys. This was operated by Central Coaches using some horrid Renault thing. It was withdrawn at the start of 2013 but Durham County Council saved it and gave the contract to JSB Travel who often missed out my part of town on this service.

X25 Darlington - MetroCentre - Newcastle
Saturday only shopper bus operated by Scarlet Band after the X90 was withdrawn. Never rode this and sadly it didn't last very long.

X61 Durham - Aycliffe - Darlington - Middlesbrough - Whitby - Scarborough
Express service that ran in the summer. This long route allowed for good Olympian bashing over the years although sadly Lowlander's later took over operating this route although Volvo Olympian 7367 became the regular bus for the 2011 season with Lowlander's continuing to be used as well. I used this service four times with Lowlander's 7441/7444 and two rides on 7367. On my first trip to Scarborough we had someone drinking a 2l bottle of Diet Coke with vodka in which he split some of and made the bus stink. Sadly this service bowed out on Easter Monday 2012 with Volvo Olympian 7367 doing the honours, on the return journey the driver filled the Metro tray with some sweets and a handwritten message saying something like "Thanks for using service X61 1992-2012"

X90 Darlington - Aycliffe - MetroCentre
Express service operated by Stagecoach Darlington normally using coaches although double deckers sometimes made appearances, on one of those occasions one was de-roofed at a low bridge (think it was at Metal Bridge?).


Thanks for reading, this took an absolute age to type so I hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane and I have a few stories from more recently if anyone is interested in seeing another time.