We Are Teesside

Connect Tees Valley Website.

... And so I was to be found at night, sitting at the kitchen table with my lap-top, calling up the Connect Tees Valley site. I was expecting something confusing, clunky and slow, but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. A box said 'From' another said 'To'. Even I could figure out what to put where.

The whole thing was slowed down by the site needing to download a slightly superfluous Google Map to show me in map form the information I had entered in text form, but a few seconds later I was asked to enter what time I wanted to arrive at my destination and was quickly looking at a list of options to get there by bus, train, or a combination of the two.

After playing for a while I can't fault the site on direct journeys, but if you go too far off the beaten track you can lose it a bit. For some reason I couldn't convince it that it is possible to leave Hurworth at all.

The real disappointment, though, was how long it took to make some of the journeys. It can take nearly two hours to get from Darlington to Brotton, an average speed of 22 mph.