Diverting the X4 through Dormanstown seems a ridiculous move to me. They've got an X3/X3A/X4 combined frequency of every 15 mins, non stop from Redcar to Middlesbrough. Fast and frequent services are what the public want these days, and here are Arriva tinkering about and adding yet more time to the journeys when instead they should've been promoting these selling points on the bus liveries, having special fares, new buses and so on.

With this and the 81 makes me think back to the old town service which ran between Marske Estate and Dormanstown. Bringing something like that back would be a better option, in my opinion, and not messing about wth the X4.

Another old service that worked was the X56. Ran limited stop from Whitby/Loftus to Middlesbrough for fast journeys, complimented with the 256 stopping everywhere. It was popular and ran every 30mins. Now we only have the 5's and X4's, both take a long time to get to Middlesbrough from East Cleveland. And a couple of token X5's running to a strange route early in the morning only.

Coastliner and Go North East invest in their long distance services, have much better vehicles and are always updating their fleet. Arriva on the other hand dont seem to have a clue how to attract people onto the buses or what passengers want and expect these days, have little investment and then are baffled when passenger numbers decline.