(Yesterday, 10:27 am)ALavery wrote Couldn’t agree more, the 62 (obviously would be a different number now) should be brought back and the 61 reverted to the original route. 
Could easily run the 63 from pennywell and divert the 62A down the 61s current route between grangetown and ryhope St.
Even then, i would personally run the 61 the old route to murton then instead of having it loop then continue to peterlee it could run straight through murton via barnes road. Then have a 61A possibly running through ashbrooke and then doing the loop in murton and returning to Sunderland. It seems there was a lot of ways to go about it and they chose the most awkward…

I know it can't happen yet as franchising hasn't happened but the 61 badly needs to work with the 22 timetabling wise imo. 

Then you'd have the 

22/61: Every 15 Minutes, Sunderland to Dalton Park
22/60/61: Every 7.5 Minutes, Sunderland to Dalton Heights

It's much better than now where the 22 and 61 just exist bouncing all over the 60 and there's absolutely no co-operation. It's no wonder the 61 is struggling when the majority of the route is covered by a more frequent and faster route. 

For the Murton to Peterlee links, you'd be much better just extending the 208 through imo and the South Hetton / Easington Lane to Sunderland links should be covered by the 55 restored using BSIP. The time it takes to get to Sunderland from Hetton etc is absysmal aswell, going on a mystery tour around the world on the 32.