(25 Jan 2026, 7:47 pm)Drifter60 wrote The big three comes with pros and cons, but with the mayor keep mentioning taking buses back under public control, if this is to be a success things like the 61 route need to be looked at, someone in South Hetton should have a bus to Dalton Park that doesn’t take 30-35 minutes when it’s a car journey of 10 minutes or a route to Sunderland that isn’t 70-80 minutes long.

The 61 is a classic case of being the bus world of a ‘jack of all trades, master of none’, there’s probably many across the bus network like it where existing services have been diverted to cover gaps in the network but the end result is routes that no longer good to either set of passengers.

I don't get why it's still like that, in reality it should be a separate route than the regular 61, just take the 65 route through Murton, that would knock 20 minutes off straight away.