Where I live, the main street in places like Horden, is a tiny back street. The whole place is a tiny backwater.

If Go North East doesn't want people to know there are direct bus links from major hubs to these tiny distant places, unless they are unlucky enough to have to make this journey as a regular commuter, so be it.

In my travels, I noticed a few points of interest in places like Horden that I might want to make a specific trip to one day. I have access to a car, and don't mind using the combination of bike and train either. It is only because I have a good idea of hwo vast GNE's operating area is, that I would even know to look up whether a direct bus exists, in some nightmare future where the whole network is one red blob. Others probably don't know these things, just like they don't spend a second perusing network maps and publicity just out of general interest.