To be honest, Pulsars get round tighter spots than York Hill, I don't think they'd have a problem on the 8's at all. Bearing in mind before the X21 got announced, they were going to use EcoCity's on there! Personally I think they should bin the 8A off and just have the 8 up and down to Spennymoor, but the buses they use on there definitely need to be upgraded.Yeah they'd be fine on the 8 its the 8A it would struggle but you could probably still get them round York Hill.
I agree with scrapping the 8A as I rode it from Ferryhill to Spennymoor the other week and it was carrying not many passengers and people in the Green Lane area let the 8A go past and waited for the Scarlet Band 110. Problem with scrapping the 8A is that the 8 can not get from Darlington to Spennymoor in an hour on the current route (I know it does on a Sunday but it can struggle to keep to the timetable on Sunday's so it probably has no chance of doing it in an hour on Monday to Saturday daytimes)