RE: Go North East Service Suggestions
Barnard Castle to Durham??? Every 20 minutes??? Don't make me laugh. However much of a brilliant route it would be to see/have. Passenger numbers would be too low on at least the West Auckland to Barnard Castle stretch and possibly even Woodhouse close to Bishop Auckland as a result of service 6. A better option may be to run it to Ramshaw. Barnard Castle has got a fairly good service, service 85, for the amount of people using it. Frequency=every 2 hours (every hour if you include connection to route 6 from 84 and more if you count connections from route 83). Admittedly it is not as good as the days of Go North East/Arriva service 8 but I feel more sorry for Ramshaw. Ramshaw used to have a very good service on route 8A only back in 2011. Now only two years on they have no bus service (82 can hardly be classed as a proper bus service). I am totally in favour of increasing the number of through buses to Bishop Auckland from Barnanrd Castle but at this moment in time I believe Ramshaw needs a bus service more than Barnard Castle needs a frequency increase. Sadly though I think this 18 idea is unlikely to happen, Go North East recently lost against Arriva with the X1/OK1 saga so I find it unlikely for them to re-branch out into The Darlington/Barnard Castle area any time soon. (FYI=I actually live in Barnard Castle.)