(07 Jan 2026, 8:34 pm)Storx wrote Not sure some of them would make much sense because of how long there are.

If you want some more, lets say realistic, North Yorkshire ones though, I'd say:

28A/28B: Middlesbrough to Northallerton, merge 28A and 80/89 as one route
30X: Thirsk to Northallerton, Extend 30X to Northallerton direct - interwork with 70 to provide an hourly bus service between the two towns direct
70: Ripon to Darlington, merge 70/72 as one route

Would open some large town links ie. Northallerton to York/Eaglecliffe, Thirsk to Darlington and the villages at either side of Stokesley to Northallerton or Middlesbrough respectively.

I'd be happy to curtail the 835/836 to start at Harrogate with an approx journey time of 2hrs 30 Minutes .

The main thing I looked at was that there were a lot of council secured services all split up in smaller segments that perhaps did not take into account wait times for connections and I felt perhaps these would be better for those in these areas if the were merged together and provided an alternative especially if the trains go to pot which from experience they tend to do a lot between Darlington and York and at present there are no alternatives.

As for the other suggestions purely alternatives to the train without the hassle of changing, if you look at Carlisle to Scarborough your either changing at Newcastle & York or Leeds via the Settle Line depending which way you go with a journey time of almost 4 hours, whereas you could have a limited bus service 2-3 times a day that takes 3 and a half hours, lets be honest the route/time taken is not dissimilar to the Yorkshire Coastliner (840/843), Cross Pennine (685), Go North East (Old X11 Newcastle-Scarborough) and no where near as excessive as some of old Malarkey Marathons. 

Have no idea what MurdnunoC is chatting about with his Stranraer to Seaham via Low Fell and Lambton Village Centre, think that may well be a MurdnunoC Marathon personally, doesn't matter end of the journey your at you'll wind up freezing your bollocks off haha.