(06 Mar 2015, 4:29 pm)Tom wrote Does anyone know any nice services to ride in the Bishop Auckland area?
Most of the Bishop routes are pretty boring that I've done in my opinion.
All I can probably come up with is service 6, the West Auckland - Cockfield section looks fairly decent.
The Scarlet Band 85 is a good route from Bishop to Barnard Castle but if you have an Explorer ticket I don't believe you can use them on the Bishop - Cockfield section of the route although you could get the 6 to Cockfield then get on the 85 there as I think they are accepted on the Cockfield - Barney stretch of the route.
I don't mind the 56 from Bishop Auckland - Ferryhill, the route runs via Coundon and Kirk Merrington, the route has a few tight roads between Coundon and Kirk Merrington which makes the route a bit more interesting. Downsides you are likely to get a Solo, although at least one journey is double deck operated although there is also a chance an X reg Dart will turn up.
Yeah, there isn't many routes in the Bishop area I would describe as practically interesting as the likes of the 1, 5/5A and to a point the X1 mainly go round council estates.