(11 Jan 2015, 6:29 pm)Jimmi wrote The Middlesbrough bound OK1's left Darlington and Middlesbrough 5 minutes in front of the X66 but it wasn't a success.

There is a fair amount of fare paying custom on the X1 now, or at least there has been when I've been on it.

Like you say Arriva has many connections in Darlington which didn't help the OK1 as it had none in Darlington.

See, I'd suggest otherwise.

I don't profess to have been a regular traveller on the OK1, but whenever I used/photographed it, it had a relatively full bus consisting of OAPs and the odd fare-paying passenger who was going all the way back to Bishop Auckland (few and far between).

The X66 had the upper-hand with the Darlington - Middlesbrough stretch because it was much more frequent than the hourly OK1, and again, onward connections at both ends attracted more fare-paying customers.