(26 Apr 2021, 12:22 pm)Andreos1 wrote https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/nor...e-20311836I best comment, given its my local area...
Interesting analysis of transport provision in Aycliffe West.
I do find it a little bit unusual with the high ranking but at the same time with the way the Aycliffe West ward is geographically doesn't help when it comes to these things as much of the ward is purely served by the 5/5A both running hourly (combined half hourly) with parts with supplemented by the council supported town service 17 running hourly Monday to Friday (although parts have a 2 hour gap around lunchtime for drivers legal break).
The options of transport links for our ward are a bit naff as it's essentially, Aycliffe Town Centre, Darlington, Bishop Auckland and Shildon (with slightly further links on Bishop Line).
There is a mention about Hospital links which is fine for Bishop Auckland General which is served by the 5/5A but is poor for other medical facilities especially those in Darlington which are very close but all require two buses to get to with West Park & BMI Woodlands Hospital having limited connections (19 half hourly, West Park & 12 to Woodlands only being hourly for most of the day). Until December 2012 we had an hourly service to West Park hospital on service 16 until Darlington Borough Council withdrew all Bus subsidies (plus some more local links like Heighington to Aycliffe which is now a two bus job via Shildon or Darlington) and we lost the direct link to Darlington Memorial in July 2008 when Arriva did their major shake up of routes in Darlington.
One thing that's irked me is the limited operation of Town Service 17 when other towns have a greater service for similar connections, for example the Chester 700 services got increased to operate on Saturdays whereas shortly after when the current tenders first came out, we got a gap in service on the 17 for a drivers legal break to enable it to be one driver operation.
The Rail service has improved in recent years at least, going from a 2 hourly service to running an hourly service, 7 days a week, only real downer was losing the direct service to Whitby on a Sunday.
As I've stated previously the lack of buses to Darlington early on a Sunday morning was an irritant and still is, however we at least have a train to Darlington these days departing at around 0820 (and about 30 mins prior to Bishop Auckland) although does irritatingly just miss some connections towards York.
Luckily I am able to drive these days so some of these gripes are much less of a problem these days to me at least.