Generally passengers HATE having to connect between services.

I have family members who would sooner wait round Darlington Station for as long as 50 minutes (in the past) to get a direct train to Manchester/Liverpool than have a quicker journey but change somewhere along the way (typically York or Leeds).

I live in Newton Aycliffe and when it came to start college, despite being further away than the likes of Darlington & Bishop, I chose New College Durham to take my course as when I started at least it was one Bus direct to get there more or less dropping me off outside whereas Darlington required a change in the Town Centre (or walk) whilst Bishop Auckland College had a half hourly service and would have a 16 min walk to the campus. It became less desirable when Arriva curtailed most 7's of the day at Durham Bus Station, I retained the direct bus each morning but my finish time seemed to be a different time each day (anything from 15:30 - 16:30 despite being timetabled to be in until 17:00) and I would almost always get to North Road Roundabout and see my connecting 7 leaving the Bus Station and would have to wait 20 minutes for the next one (assuming it was on time which was rare), often if I finished at around 16:00 I just waited around until the first direct bus home from Fram with how "reliable" the 64 tended to be, I would often just end up catching the same 7 from Durham Bus Station, so a journey which originally took roughly 60 minutes when direct Mon-Sat daytime to/from Fram became 90 minutes, or even as much as 120 minutes when the 64 would disappear off the face of the earth, was half tempted to leave the College as it became such a faff.

I think lack of connections or poorly timed connections really don't help passengers, especially if the connection is somewhere awful, I absolutely detested waiting in Durham Bus Station at night and even with security didn't feel safe/anxious half the time. I like how GNE have tried to maintain that with the loss of the 925, passengers wishing to travel to/from QE Hospital should change at Wrekenton, one problem however is the 25 will no longer serve the High Street stop in Wrekenton (Langley Park bound) which although the alternative stop isn't far away it will still be a pain to some.