(03 Apr 2022, 3:53 pm)Malarkey wrote Tell you what the evening runs of the 82/84/84A are a joke, noticed last night whilst getting a few photos that you have a 84/84A at xx:58/xx:28 to Rickleton then you have an 82 to Birtley at xx:06/xx:36 which runs off the 85, where is the justification in having two "minibus" services within 6 minutes of each other, following this you then have the 2 at xx13 to Silksworth then the 50 to Chester-Le-Street at xx:16. So you have 4 buses within 18 minutes of each other to Lambton/Ayton & Harraton with a then 12 minute gap till the next 82/84/84A cycle followed by a 30 minute gap where you'd then repeat the same cycle again.

I can't understand why Go North East could not have the 2 or the 82 additionally serve Harraton and Rickleton on an Evening covering this section of the 84/84A as I can remember going back to the days of the 638 that used to do this on an Evening, Alternatively you could have 84/84A extend from Rickleton to Birtley covering this section of the 82.

Any changes would require a change in interworking pattern as currently they interwork at Washington Galleries to them instead interwork at Concord so the driver would do the following:

84/84A - Birtley to Concord / 85 - Concord to Washington Galleries / 85 - Washington Galleries to Concord / 84/84A - Concord to Birtley

Either way you'd reduce resource required to operate the services. I did also note a few drivers were being supervised last night as they'd not done these routes before.