Changes to the Go North East 206 bus service

Durham County Council has received notification of changes to the 206 Go North East bus service running from Peterlee to Hutton Henry via Hesleden and Castle Eden. Please see full details in the email thread below:

Go North East, who have been operating the service 206 under contract to the Council between Peterlee and Hutton Henry via Hesleden and Castle Eden at between 1 and 2 hour intervals, have from today incorporated the 206 journeys into their service 55 which had previously operated to Hartlepool. This will give a true hourly pattern and also through journey opportunities north of Peterlee to Houghton-le-Spring, Doxford International and Sunderland.

While this generally good news is to be welcomed our funding will continue to reflect the level of service that existed before today so I would caution that there is an element of commercial risk inherent in this change and therefore some concerns about its longevity. That said, Go North East do need to provide a bus for our contract journeys and that bus needs to be employed between those journeys so perhaps this is a logical means of achieving that. 

I attach a link to the Go North East timetable https://www.gonortheast.co.uk/services/GNE/55?date=2020-06-01&direction=inbound