(21 Aug 2022, 9:13 pm)xpm wrote and that is exactly the problem - half the time it is completely empty, might take an odd one or two from Alston to halty and back, a couple from Halton Lea Gate, and someone from Slaggy, but that's about it. It could be a completely soul destroying duty ten and a half hours of solitude - worse in the winter when the weather came in - running about in bad conditions for no benefit for anyone - that triip back across Alston Moor and Whitfield could be long and hairy.I think next year when the contracts are now scheduled for renewal/review, there should be some reviews into the passenger numbers as in some places and some routes there's probs ways to make them cheaper to run, unless some are tagged onto scholars and the like where a higher capacity is required, half of these tenders around Hexham could be done with say a Ford Transit like Rural Link/L&B Travel are already using on their tendered runs in the area.
From what I understand it's a Beechings route - so there's always going to be some sort of service on there with a minimum number of journeys. Prior to the most recent changes most people agreed the direction of travel at the time was the wrong way around - so it should have been going to Alston when it was coming from there - and vice-versa.
In latter years the last 185 was always empty both ways, and more often than not asides from tourist season you could often carry less than half a dozen people a day on all of the 185 trips.
681 was sometimes a little busier depending on whether an odd group of teenagers wanted to go to Halty to generally make a nuisance of themselves around the train station, but again more often than not it was an odd person here and there that were regulars - and by regular that was more often than not, once a week.
I think the current model of DRT is likely not ideally suited to the rural scope especially as vast span as Northumberland where usage is likely to be low and will just end up being a glorified taxi service, I think a better method would be to retain timetables on the 681 but make it run on a demand basis where you have to call to travel on the journey so if there's no passengers at all which often sounds to be the case, the resources are saved by not having to run it (Durham County Council previously took this approach on their 88 service between Bishop Auckland to Hamsterley which was very lightly used other than the school time journey which is all that remains now, the likes of The Little White Bus use this method too although passes aren't accepted for some of these journeys).
Wright Bros run service 889 between Alston & Hexham on Tuesdays only: https://wrightscoaches.co.uk/routes/
The 680 used to run from Alston to Carlisle via many villages along the way operated by Telford's but closest it gets now is Brampton.