Could swear I wrote this somewhere but can't seem to find it.

Either the X1 a short one hourly only to Houghton then extended to Seaham, however I would change the route of the 71, I would take it through Seaton, Station Road, Train Station, Seaham then possibly either upto the Business Park (GNE should do surveys to see how many people would use it), or along Princess Road then turn around to replace missed links from the 202/62.

or 21 should extended from Chester-Le-Street and follow the 71 including my idea to re-route it.

If the X1 is an option you could add the 71 onto the current 39A to Houghton and extend it to CLS this would also open up links for people who work at Doxford.

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(27 Feb 2023, 7:31 pm)Drifter60 wrote The 206 and 208 do both appear to operate standalone and must have remote reliefs at Peterlee.

With clever interworking patterns, I’m sure you could work the X6 to be half hourly. One bus an hour doing the 201/209/210 as now, and the other moving onto 206 then 208 then back on X6.

I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, a half hourly service is such a difference for passengers and it seems like the X6 maybe be a little stilted with just hourly mini buses. And the fact this could remove the need for remote reliefs on 206 & 208, it would at least make some operational sense too.

I agree, hourly services are really no good as they offer no real flexability. 

Honestly I've looked at timings and the 206 gets in just before the 208, not sure if you could do it the other way around, but there would be some way, also running dead to Peterlee is easily 20-30 mins, the X6 route is just under 40