Talking about improvements the current Go NorthEast 61 service is just a mess and I can’t believe how farcical this route is.

A family member, auntie, used it from South Hetton to Sunderland and the quote from her was ‘never again’. It took 1hour 20 minutes, majority of which seemed to be spent looping Murton. Checking over the timetable, it seems it takes 25 minutes get to Dalton Park from the top of Murton, a journey which would take a car 4-5 minutes maximum and even the 65 manages in 12 minutes. Who is this service for?

Having used traveline, it seems had my Auntie gone out for a bus 5 minutes earlier, she could have used the X1 from South Hetton to Houghton then caught the X20 into Sunderland - this would have got her into Sunderland 16 minutes earlier than the ‘direct’ 61… surely this Peterlee extension is actually serving no purpose, anyone using it must perhaps not know the alternatives available, or are just using the direct service to save changing buses… but this doesn’t mean a good service is being provided for passengers.

I had seen in this thread the mention of the old 202/62 route being reinstated and I have to agree that council subsidy is supporting this marathon 61 route, but this where the system is broken. Because financially supporting a whole new route by bringing back the 62/202 may cost more, but would an overall better service be provided? Because at the minute I fail to see why Durham County council are supporting this route at all…