(Yesterday, 12:08 pm)deanmachine wrote I disagree, I think there's space for both the 23 and X6. Arriva deciding it needs to make passengers get off and get another bus will be something hopefully franchising gets rid of. Maybe even something more sensible like the 23 serving Seaham Harbour too making the 24 a fast option again and potentially binning the X6 entirely. In reality the main reason the 23 was withdrawn to Sunderland was because it was inconvenient for Arriva to run with no East Durham base and mainly in "GNE territory", franchising would mean it could be based out of one of the Sunderland depots and not matter who's territory it goes through, then it might make sense again.
Coincidentally it’s the same reason the X6 to Hartlepool was binned. So GNE could run Peterlee comfortably without a base there.